Michael Mashiri
An executive secretary for the Council for Legal Education who allegedly was fraudulently giving out 19 certificates to students who would have attained their legal qualifications from foreign universities even if they were unqualified has appeared in court on allegations of criminal abuse of office.
Huggins Hardwork Duri, of Borrowdale appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts before magistrate Munashe Chibanda.
The complainant in this matter is the State, represented by Joe Zimba who is the finance and administration manager for Council for Legal Education.
The State, through prosecutor Pardon Dziva, alleges that Duri who is the executive secretary for the Council for Legal Education, a statutory board with the responsibility of regulating legal education and training, a position he assumed in 2017, on June 19, 2023 met a group of students who had finished a Bachelor of Procedural Law, a post-graduate degree offered by the University of Zimbabwe as a bridging programme for those who would have attained their legal qualifications from foreign universities.
The degree is meant to enable graduants to be registered as legal practitioners in Zimbabwe without undergoing conversion examinations offered by the council.
The group's application for exemption from the mandatory conversion examinations had been turned down by the council.
At the meeting, Duri offered to assist the group to be exempted from writing the conversion examinations.
On June 20, Duri met the informant and undertook to assist him to attain the certificates that would enable him to register as a legal practitioner.
He highlighted that the informant was supposed to register for the examination and he would ensure that he would get the certificates even if he had failed.
Duri said that for this to be done, the informant was supposed to pay US$560 registration fees.
Duri undertook to facilitate the registration process if the informant gave him the money.
The arrangement was agreed to and the informant promised to give Duri the money on June 21, 2023.
On June 21, the informant reported the matter to Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and Duri was arrested in the act of receiving US$560 which was part of the registration fees.
The investigations that were done established that Duri had fraudulently issued 19 certificates to undeserving individuals.
Some of the individuals never even registered with the council at all and some wrote the examinations and had failed, but were given the certificates which they went on to use to apply for admission as legal practitioners.
Duri by giving out certificates to undeserving persons, he acted in contrary and inconsistent with his duties.
By that he allegedly showed favour to undeserving individuals as such causing a potential threat to the reputation of the legal fraternity.
He was ordered to pay US$500 as bail.
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