A voice note by a woman narrating results of her purported meeting with a prosecutor to plot the throwing away of a serious case involving US$8 000 worth of habit-forming cough syrup has put the Beitbridge magistrates court under the spotlight.
Questions are being asked in the crime-ridden Beitbridge town as to whether there is authentic justice delivery after the recording went viral.
In the recording, which has since gone viral, an unidentified woman reports back to an uncle results of her meeting with a prosecutor who had demanded an offering for their relative to be spared of custodial sentence.
The woman, whose identity has been established, tells her uncle she had physically been shown the docket by a prosecutor, revealing how court material may be in the wrong hands.
In the voice note, the woman who works at a local supermarket describes the rendezvous matching prosecutors’ offices at the Beitbridge magistrates’ court.
The woman also identifies known prosecutors stationed at the Beitbridge magistrates’ court.
In an interview with Standard People, prosecutor general Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo said they were aware of the case.
“We are monitoring that and many other cases at Beitbridge. In that case our staff is not directly involved and it is a third party reporting, but we are looking at it,” she said.
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Meanwhile, officer commanding police at Beitbridge Chief Superintendent Mesuli Ncube said they had recently dealt with numerous drug cases and it was not easy to establish the case referred to in the recording.
In the voice note the woman describes how she waited for an hour to see the prosecutor “facilitating her deal”, identifying officials sharing the same office.
“I waited for almost an hour. I arrived at 4(pm) and he must have been busy. He showed me the docket,” she said.
“The bronco “Broncleer cough syrup”, which our uncle had was worth almost US$8 000, about US$7 630.
“He (prosecutor) said we must not drop the lawyer representing our uncle. The lawyer has a purpose,” she said admitting she had not been able to capture figures by her phone camera.
The woman said she had been told that female prosecutor, whose name was mentioned, will handle the case adding that had been asked to find from her relatives their offer for the prosecutors to influence the outcome of the drug case and avoiding imprisonment.
“They want to know how much we offer outside the lawyer's fees so that the possibility of an eight-year jail term is not handed down,” she is heard saying in the audio.
