Ex-Mpilo nurse in pay fraud

Thandeka Moyo, Court Reporter
A FORMER Mpilo Central Hospital nurse appeared in court yesterday for alleged theft after she kept withdrawing money that was mistakenly deposited into her bank account as her salary for some months after she was laid off.

Sduduzo Dube, 40, of Pumula North, received a salary amounting to $6,608 from November 2014 until the crime was detected this week.

She told Bulawayo magistrate Tinashe Tashaya that she thought the money was from her husband who is a medical doctor in a foreign country.

“I wasn’t aware that I was still on the pay roll as I assumed that the money was coming from elsewhere.

I normally receive money from my husband in the Diaspora and I withdrew the money thinking it was my maintenance money from my husband,” said Dube in her defence.

Magistrate Tashaya however convicted Dube of theft.

“It’s clear that you knew you were no longer working for Mpilo but you kept on withdrawing your salary.

You’ll come back tomorrow (today) for your sentence,” said Tashaya.

Nathaniel Mutsikwa, for the State, told the court that on February 3, Eliphanos Zhou, a human resources officer at Mpilo discovered that Dube was no longer employed by the institution, but was being paid.

“Zhou was going through his records when he discovered that the hospital had been paying Dube since she was laid off in November 2014. He also discovered that she had been receiving her monthly salary,” said Mutsikwa.