Chinese National in Court Over Fraudulent Law Certificate Scandal
By Judith Nyuke
A Chinese national and the suspended executive secretary of the Council for Legal Education (CLE) appeared in court facing allegations of colluding to fraudulently obtain a certificate for completing the conversion examination required to practice as a lawyer in Zimbabwe.
Huggins Hardwork Duri, 41, and Yan Yu, 50, appeared before Harare Magistrate Clever Tsikwa charged with fraud.
The trial commenced on Monday with the State calling its first witness, Joe Zimba, the Finance and Administration Manager for the CLE.
Magistrate Tsikwa rolled over the matter to 18 December for trail continuation.
According to court papers, Yan Yu is a registered legal practitioner in Zimbabwe.
She is a holder of Bachelor of Laws Honors Degree having graduated at the University of South Africa [UNISA] in April 2017.
The Court heard that in order for Yan Yu to be admitted as a Legal Practitioner and practice law in Zimbabwe, she had to write conversion examinations and attain certificates of completion with the CLE as they had attained their legal qualifications from foreign Universities.
Sometime in 2017, Yan Yu reportedly applied and registered to write her conversion exams but however did not turn up for the examinations.
Her eligibility to sit for the June exams became an issue because of her Chinese nationality hence the other members of the Secretariate referred her to Duri’s office.
Yan Yu then re-appeared in 2020 intending to register for November 2020 examinations and successfully enrolled with candidate number 11760 and registered for six modules after she was exempted from writing only one exam (Criminal Procedure).
Yan Yu wrote all her six modules and only passed one module. Upon realizing that she had failed, she allegedly connived with Duri deceiving CLE into believing that Yan Yu was eligible for a certificate of completion.
It is further alleged that Duri ordered Shorai Tafadzwa Mupunga who was his subordinate to use his laptop and insert Yan Yu’s credentials on a template of the certificate, printed it out and handed it to him for signing of the fraudulent certificate by the Council Chairperson Justice A.M Gowora JA and the Board of Examiners Chairperson Rogers Matsikidze.
As a result of Yan Yu and Duri’s conduct, the complainant suffered prejudice to its good reputation and administration.
