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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
A Bikita man reportedly connived with his wife and squandered his late brother’s $30 000 pension after throwing the widow out of her matrimonial house. Following the death of his brother, Parwaringira Shatei, who was a soldier, Micah Mbarwi (54), allegedly kicked Winfrida Chisiri and her daughter Cynthia Shatei out of their home. Mbarwi and his wife Anna Chiweshe (47) then fraudulently obtained documents that purported that Chiweshe was married to Shatei and had two children by him, the court heard. The couple then used the fake documents that included two birth certificates to access the $30 000 pension money.

Chiweshe and Mbarwi recently appeared in court charged with fraud and will be back on December 12 for trial commencement. Prosecuting, Ms Nancy Chandakaona alleged that sometime in 1983, Mbarwi’s late brother Shatei, who was a member of the Zimbabwe National Army, got married to Chisiri.

According to the State, Shatei passed on in 1994 and soon after his burial, Mbarwi chased away Chisiri and her child and went on to obtain his late brother’s death certificate at Karoi District Registry.

In February 1995, Chiweshe and Mbarwi went to Bikita Registrar of Birth and Death, where they misrepresented that Chiweshe had been married to the late Shatei and had two children together.

The couple claimed that the first child was born in April 1991 and the second one in August 1994. They obtained birth certificates for the two purported children, it is alleged. Armed with the two birth certificates and the letter of administration, they went to the Pensions Office in Harare and applied for the widow’s pension.

The court heard that Chiweshe used the two birth certificates and the letter of administration to support her claim for pension. It is alleged the Pensions Office processed the pension and Chiweshe received $30 000 in the period between 1996 and March 2011 in widow’s pension and monthly pension for the two children.

The offence came to light in February this year when Cynthia made follow ups with the Pensions Office and discovered that the money had already been signed for. She informed her mother, who in turn made a report to police. Investigations led to the arrest of the pair.