A Karoi magistrate, Amanda Muridzo and clerk of the court, Shelter Kachirika have appeared at the Chinhoyi Magistrate Court for allegedly accepting a $20 bribe.
It is further alleged that the money was paid to influence the magistrate’s decision in a maintenance case.
Acting Chinhoyi regional magistrate Mr. Felix Mawadze granted the duo $50 bail and ordered them not to interfere with State witnesses.
The state alleges that in August last year, Sinafi Chidoko filed maintenance papers at Karoi Magistrate Court against former husband David Mazowi. She was demanding $250 for the upkeep of her two minor children. The however ordered Mazowi to pay $50 prompting Ms Chidoko to reapply for an upward variation to $100.
The court heard that the clerk, the magistrate and Mazowi then made a plan to influence the outcome. The prosecutor told the court:
Muridzo and Kachirika, in connivance with Mazowi who is still at large, hatched a plan to influence the outcome of the variation. Mazowi transferred $20 from his ecocash account into Kachirika’s ecocash account.
Muridzo presided over the maintenance hearing and granted an upward variation of $20 against $50, as was requested by the applicant, after she had been influenced by the bribe.