adminEmily Mbewe Court Reporter
A WOMAN forged an Ordinary Level certificate to apply for a job at a Bulawayo hospital, a court has heard.
Mercy Ncube, 35, of Maphisa, pleaded guilty to forgery and fraud charges when she appeared before Magistrate Charity Maphosa on Monday.
She was remanded to February 27 for sentencing on $100 bail .
The number of subjects and symbols she added to her forged O-Level certificate were not stated and it was not clear if she was unemployed or not at the time she committed the crime.
Prosecuting, Dumisani Ndlovu told the court that on January 11, this year, Ncube saw a hospital job advertisement in the Sunday Mail.
The woman did not have five Ordinary Level subjects that were needed for the job at Bulawayo’s Old Memorial Hospital and decided to forge her certificate since she was not qualified.
“The advert was on vacancies for data entry clerks at Old Memorial Hospital located at corner 11th Avenue and Herbert Chitepo in Bulawayo,” said Ndlovu.
“Ncube scanned her Ordinary level certificate and altered it leaving her personal details on the document.”
The court heard that she used the altered certificate to apply for the job at Old Memorial Hospital. On January 15, Ncube submitted her application letter together with the forged certificate. The hospital’s Human Resources Officer, Sazane Ngwenya, received the application and as he was going through Ncube’s papers, he discovered that the applicant’s certificate was fake.
On February 4, Ngwenya went to the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) Bulawayo offices and raised the matter with the examinations body’s Regional examinations manager Godfree Muyamba, who forwarded Ncube’s certificate to Zimsec head offices in Harare for verification.
“On February 5, the copy of the certificate was returned from Harare attached with an affidavit from Freedom Kondo who works at Zimsec in Harare. The affidavit said the certificate was counterfeit and that the centre number on the certificate did not exist on their records, leading to Ncube’s arrest,” said Ndlovu.
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