Zimrights quartet to remain in custody

provide the quartet with a trial date.
Leo Chamahwinya (28), the Zimrights programme manager, Dorcas Shereni (42), Tanaka Chinaka (30) and Farai Bhani last week appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe who deferred the case.
The State had indicated that they were not ready for trial.

The four are accused of trying to discredit the country’s voter’ roll by manufacturing counterfeit copies of the certificate of registration as a voter.
The certificate of registration was allegedly meant for completion with false names of alleged registered voters.

It is the State’s case that on May 31, Bhani registered himself as a voter at Dema Registrar General’s Office and acquired a certificate of registration as a voter.

He is alleged to have taken the certificate to Chinaka together with reams of green flimsy papers.
The pair, it is alleged, scanned the received copy of the certificate of registration as a voter and printed counterfeit copies using the supplied flimsy papers.

They allegedly filled fake names on them and Shereni would give the documents to her subordinate Chamahwinya upon his request at the ZimRights offices.

The State says Chamahwinya would make copies of all the supplied fake documents which he would officially use in ZimRights analysis and for later use to criticise the set up, records and functions of the Registrar General’s Office of Zimbabwe.

Upon getting his own records of the counterfeit certificates of registration as a voter Chamahwinya would retain the photocopies and pay Shereni a dollar per copy.

It is alleged Shereni would make payment to Bhani who would in turn pay Chinaka.
It is the State’s contention that the four intended to cause prejudice to the Registrar General’s Office which has the mandate to register voters and to maintain the voters’ roll.

The State says there was a real risk or possibility that this misrepresentation would cause bloodshed or a chaotic situation in Zimbabwe if the counterfeit certificates were detected during and after the 2013 general elections.