CONTROVERSIAL EMAIL DOMINATES KOMBO, KASI TRIAL
SONGBIRD Ivy Kombo and her husband, Admire Kasi, appeared in court yesterday in their fraud trial alongside former Council for Legal Education executive secretary, Huggins Duri.
Kombo and Kasi are accused of allegedly fraudulently obtaining conversion certificates to practice law in Zimbabwe without writing the conversion examinations.
The trial resumed with the defence lawyers cross-examining State witness Edith Mandiyanike, whom Duri allegedly instructed to print the certificate for the couple, despite them not writing conversion exams.
Mandiyanike was grilled on the alleged email, which the defence lawyers suggested was a fabrication. She claimed that the email existed in her inbox, but was not placed before the court.
“How do we know that you received the so-called instruction via email because the email address is not known and it’s not showing on the document tendered in court?
“I put it to you that it’s not an email, that’s why there’s no email address. This is cooked up,” said Admire Rubaya, representing Kombo.
In response, Mandiyanike said she was not well versed in IT but said that the email was in her inbox.
“The only contents on the email are their names and eight subjects. Us, as Fidelity Printers, wouldn’t know if they sat and passed, we simply get instructions from the Council for Legal Education,” she said.
The lawyers asked Mandiyanike why she was representing Fidelity Printers in court without a company resolution and whether her employer was aware of it.
Prosecutor Anesu Chirenje went on to lead evidence from another witness Anita Ncube, who was Duri’s receptionist and secretary.
She confirmed receiving Kombo’s application on April 3, 2019, but said she didn’t receive Kasi’s application.
Trial resumes on March 13.