Snake appears in complainant's file in court offices

snake in office files

THERE was drama at the Civil Court offices of the Bulawayo magistrates' courts yesterday afternoon when a clerk bumped into a live snake in a file she wanted to pull out

Court clerks said a Plaintiff in the Small Claims Court walked into their offices just after lunch break and asked for her file.

A clerk went to the shelves to pull out the file and that is when she came face to face with a brown long and thin snake, which was inside the file she wanted to pull out.

The snake raised its head and the clerk threw away the file and shouted for help from her workmates who all bolted out of the office.

They said the woman, who is a Plaintiff in the case, denied any connection with the snake while the Defendant in the case had not shown up.
As a result the case could not go in, as no one would dare move closer to the filing cabinets in fear of the reptile.

The provincial magistrate in charge of Bulawayo and Matabeleland North provinces, Mr John Masimba, confirmed the incident and said they were contemplating calling in officers from the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to come and deal with the reptile.

By late afternoon, after Mr Masimba had returned from an inspection in loco in an inquest case, the clerks said some male employees at the courts had tried to look for the snake but failed to locate it.

They said the male employees removed a handful of files but could not find the reptile and shelved the plans to hunt it down to today.