l Pastor Kasi was facing a night in remand prison
l Court officials rush in to help him in court drama
Zvikomborero Parafini
ADMIRE Kasi, the husband of Ivy Kombo, went into a trance yesterday and narrowly avoided spending a night in remand prison, amid complications, over the settlement of his bail conditions.
The UK-based high-profile couple was granted bail in a case in which they are being accused of fraud.
Kombo settled her US$300 bail condition.
But, for Kasi, this was just the start of the drama at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts.
His attempt to settle his bail conditions was complicated by some differences in the names in his documents.
The name on his passport differed from that on the State’s papers and he was advised he could not be released and would be taken to remand prison.
And, facing the possibility of spending, at least, a night in remand prison, Kasi fell into a trance.
He started shaking, as if he was having a seizure, and then shouted that he was having an asthma attack.
Court officials raced in to try and help him.
The issue was resolved when he brought other documents which showed that, indeed, he was the owner of the passport he produced in court.
The couple appeared before Harare magistrate, Marewanazvo Gofa, who released them on US$300 bail.
The two were ordered to report once a fortnight at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission offices and to surrender their passports.
Allegations are that in 2013, the couple graduated from the University of Bedfordshire, UK, with Bachelor of Laws degrees.
And, for them to practice law in Zimbabwe, they had to attain a certificate of completion with Council for Legal Education, after writing and passing conversion examinations.
The allegations are that in 2021, Kombo approached one Shorai Tafadzwa Mupunga, a CLE official to assist her to register and write the conversion examinations.
Mupunga allegedly advised her that she was going to engage one, Huggins Duri, the then CLE secretary.
Allegations are that sometime last year, Mupunga approached Duri, who indicated that he was able to facilitate the issuance of the conversion certificates, without writing the conversion examinations, if the couple paid US$1 100.
The two allegedly paid the money through Mupunga, who handed it to Duri, who then processed the certificates which certified that the couple had written and passed eight conversion subjects.
The subjects are Statute Law, Evidence, Bookkeeping, Civil Law Practice duties and Functions and Ethics for Legal Practitioners, Civil Practice and Procedure, Common Law 1 and Common Law 2.
The allegations are that Duri handed over the certificate to Mupunga for transmission to the couple.