A MASHONALAND Tobacco Company employee, Colet Manyenga, yesterday appeared at the Mbare Magistrates’ Court charged with fraud after using his late brother’s identity card to get a job and continued to use it for four years.
BY NQOBILE NKIWANE
Manyenga (30) pleaded guilty to the offence and was slapped with a six-month jail term by magistrate Bianca Makwande.
However, Manyenga was spared from doing time in prison after Makwande suspended three months on condition of good behaviour and the remaining three months were set aside on condition he performs 305 hours of community service.
The court heard that sometime in June 2011, Manyenga was offered a job at the Mashonaland Tobacco Company, but he did not have a personal national identity card that was required for him to be considered for the post.
He then went on to use his late brother, Allen’s national identity card and other particulars.
In mitigation, Manyenga told the court that he acted out of desperation because he was finding it difficult to get his own ID card following the death of his parents.
He went further to tell the court that when his parents died he was still young and they left him without a birth certificate. “I used my late brother’s ID card because I had just come from the rural areas and was in need of a job,” Manyenga said.
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“I did not have money to apply for my own ID card and worse still I did not even have a birth certificate.”
Prosecutor Revai Mudozori told the court that the matter only came to light on June 9 this year when Manyenga approached the company’s human resources department intending to exchange the late brothers national identity card with his own which he had recently acquired.
Meanwhile, a 56-year-old Harare man, Terison Mzilikazi, appeared before the same magistrate charged with malicious damage to property.
Allegations against Mzilikazi were that on Friday last week he went to Privilege Magunje’s house at number 1249 Amsterdam, Waterfalls, Harare, and occupied it claiming it was his.
However, this did not go down well with Magunje, who, according to the State, resisted Mzilikazi’s move arguing she was entitled to the property.
After encountering resistance, Mzilikazi allegedly became aggressive and went on to damage part of the wall of the three-roomed house, leading to his arrest. He was remanded out of custody to June 24.
