Woman arrested for printing Fake certificate

O level certificate

A Chimanimani woman who forged her O-Level results and later enrolled for a nurse-training programme at Gweru General Hospital was on Tuesday arraigned before a Gweru magistrate to answer charges of fraud and forgery.

Jesca Zviridzo Muchakubvura (26) of Nganga Township Chimanimani pleaded guilty to both counts when she appeared before magistrate, Mr Irvine Mhlanga.

She was remanded out of custody on US$20 bail to 29 January. For the State, Mr Michael Mhene said on a date unknown to the prosecutor but in 2006, Muchakubvura printed a fake Zimbabwe School Examination Council in Collaboration with the University of Cambridge Ordinary Level certificate to her name.

Mr Mhene said on 4 January, this year, the accused applied for the registered general nurse training programme at Gweru General Hospital and produced the forged certificate of O-Level as her credentials which indicated that she had passed her O-Level education.

He however said on 12 January hospital authorities in Gweru discovered that the certificate to have been forged as they were going through all certificates of newly recruited student nurses.

Mr Mhene said the forged document was sent to the Zimbabwe School Examination Council head office in Harare where it was confirmed that the certificate was indeed a forged one.

He said the accused had altered her Ds obtained at O-level that she sat for in the November examinations 1996 to five Bs and two Cs. During the sat down interview, Muchakubvura said she did her secondary education from 1996 to 1999 at Chimanimani Secondary School. Her forged certificate indicated that she sat for her O-Level exams in 1997.

Muchakubvura said she sat for her O-Level exams in 1999 and passed four subjects, Shona (C), Agriculture (C), Fashion and Fabrics (B) and English (C).

She said she wrote two more subjects, Commerce and Science in June 2000 and passed them. The accused said her certificates and all her other belongings were burnt in 2006 in a hut in Ngorima Village, Chief Ngorima in Chimanimani.

She said she then approached a neighbour, a Mr Boston Jochona who promised her that she would help her place all her results on one certificate at a price of ZW$2 000.

Muchakubvura said Mr Jochona managed to put all her results on one certificate within a week and sent the document through post to her. She said she then discovered that the symbols had been changed and one more subject, Mathematics, had been added.

The accused said she immediately used the forged results to seek employment as a temporary teacher at Biriiri Primary in Chimanimani from February to August 2009. She said she then applied for the nurse training course at Mutare Hospital and was called for interviews.

Muchakubvura said she was awarded a place in December and was later posted to Gweru General Hospital in January to commence her nurse training course.