News / National
Woman 'forges' maintenance documents
26 Mar 2018 at 05:39hrs | Views
A Chitungwiza woman was last week left dejected after her bid to claim maintenance arrears using forged documents hit a brickwall.
Brenda Bulangwe dragged her ex-husband Tonderai Rimaunga to court on allegations of Contravening Section 23 (1) of the Maintenance Act Chapter 5:9, failure to pay maintenance.
This was after she had acquired a default judgment from the Harare Civil Court compelling Rimaunga, to pay $120 per month in child support.
However, Bulangwe was left with egg on the face after a Chitungwiza magistrate acquitted Rimaunga of the charges. This was after the court established that the ex-husband was not properly served with summons to appear before the court.
Magistrate Yeukai Chigodora ruled that it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt that Rimaunga was served with the relevant court papers, which culminated in the order compelling him to pay maintenance, which arrears had ballooned to $720.
Rimaunga successfully argued that his client was not served with court papers compelling him to appear before the maintenance court.
He claimed Bulangwe had forged Rimaunga's signature and is in possession of his national identity card, which she is refusing to surrender to him.
The court also observed that the certificate of service had anomalies in that it was stamped by the police on July 17, 2017 but Rimaunga allegedly signed on July 18, 2017.
The police officer who was reported to have been involved in the serving of the papers, said Bulangwe had lied to the court, because she served the papers on her own.
Brenda Bulangwe dragged her ex-husband Tonderai Rimaunga to court on allegations of Contravening Section 23 (1) of the Maintenance Act Chapter 5:9, failure to pay maintenance.
This was after she had acquired a default judgment from the Harare Civil Court compelling Rimaunga, to pay $120 per month in child support.
However, Bulangwe was left with egg on the face after a Chitungwiza magistrate acquitted Rimaunga of the charges. This was after the court established that the ex-husband was not properly served with summons to appear before the court.
Magistrate Yeukai Chigodora ruled that it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt that Rimaunga was served with the relevant court papers, which culminated in the order compelling him to pay maintenance, which arrears had ballooned to $720.
Rimaunga successfully argued that his client was not served with court papers compelling him to appear before the maintenance court.
He claimed Bulangwe had forged Rimaunga's signature and is in possession of his national identity card, which she is refusing to surrender to him.
The court also observed that the certificate of service had anomalies in that it was stamped by the police on July 17, 2017 but Rimaunga allegedly signed on July 18, 2017.
The police officer who was reported to have been involved in the serving of the papers, said Bulangwe had lied to the court, because she served the papers on her own.
Source - dailynews
