The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
AN audit has unearthed massive corruption at St Augustine’s High School, with two employees already in the dock for allegedly conniving to defraud the school of US$53 000.
Sophia Dzenga (42) and Patience Ruzvidzo (37) were arrested last Thursday.
Dzenga and Ruzvidzo last Saturday appeared before Mutare Magistrate, Ms Thandiwe Sibanda facing fraud charges as defined in Section 36 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23.
Ms Sibanda remanded them out of custody to May 23, 2023, on $200 000 bail each.
The duo has since been stopped from reporting for duty.
The latest development has courted the wrath of parents who all along have been haggling with the school over a bloated debtors’ list.
It is alleged that the two accused persons, employed as school secretary and school clerk, would use one receipt serial number to cover two students’ school fees payments.
They would then enter a different receipt number into the school’s system and convert the school fees paid by the students to their own use.
The two suspects were allegedly leading flamboyant lifestyles which did not tally with their earnings.
When they appeared before Ms Sibanda, Ms Talent Nyamuzuwe prosecuted.
Ms Nyamuzuwe told the court that the school was prejudiced of US$53 572 between January 2022 and April 2023.
“Sophia Dzenga and Patience Ruzvidzo, who are school secretary and school clerk respectively, hatched a plan to defraud the school. Acting in connivance, the two accused persons would write a receipt for school fees for two different students. The receipt would have the same serial number.
“They would use a black pen to write the top copy of the carbonated receipt book for receipting school fees. They would then issue the student a gate pass (which allows the student to enter the school gate), instead of the receipt.
“They would then pluck the blank top copy which they would then use to receipt another student’s fees. They would then take the money and convert it to their own use,” Ms Nyamuzuwe.
The accused persons would then enter false receipt numbers into the school’s system to avoid detection.
Sometime in April 2023, the school authorities became suspicious of the pair’s conduct and tasked the school accounts clerk to compile an updated debtors’ list of all students who had not yet paid school fees.
“The noted anomalies then prompted the school authority to institute an audit of the school’s finances,” said Ms Nyamuzuwe.
The audit established that the school had been prejudiced of US$53 572.
A police report was made, leading to the arrest of the culprits.
