A Harare lawyer, Linda Kovi appeared in court Tuesday charged with obstruction of justice after she allegedly attempted to intimidate witnesses in another case which is pending before the courts.
Linda Kovi was recently arrested by theZimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) and appeared before Harare Magistrate Donald Ndirowei for her bail application yesterday.
The State, represented by Anesu Chirenje, is claiming that Kovi called the State's key witness, Shorai Mupunga and tried to intimidate her into not giving evidence against her in a fraud case.
According to court papers, Kovi threatened Mupunga, telling her that a traditional healer had a vision prophesying that she would be attacked by evil spirits if she continued as a witness.
It is further alleged that Kovi went on to plead with the traditional healer, known as Chief Dotito, to use his spiritual powers to deal with the Zacc officers and court officials who were dealing with her case.
This was confirmed by the investigating officer Elisha Chimusoro who said she threatened the witnesses with bad luck.
"The accused interfered with our witness (Shorai Mupunga) who she called and told that she knew a certain traditional healer who said that Mupunga would face bad luck if she continued to go on with her case. The traditional healer went on to call our witness and advised her that bad luck was going to befall her if she continued testifying against the accused. The accused also didn't report to Zacc in December and February as she was ordered to by the court."
She argued that there was no way she could have interfered because she did not have any access to the names of the people who would be called to testify against her.
The ruling on her bail application will be handed down on Wednesday.
Kovi, according to the state, acquired a Bachelor of Law from theUniversity of Africa in Zambia.
According to court papers, sometime in 2019, Kovi graduated from the University of Africa in Lusaka, Zambia, with a Bachelor of Laws degree.
For her to practise law in Zimbabwe she had to attain a certificate of conversions with the Council for Legal Education [CLE].
In 2020 she enrolled with CLE and started writing conversions examinations.
The accused person registered and sat for four modules including Common Law 1 and 2, Criminal Procedure and Evidence, in June 2020.
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She only managed to pass Common Law 2 and failed the other three.
She went on to register and sit for three other modules namely Civil Procedure, Statutes and Ethics and she failed all three modules.
Investigations have also established that she did not write the Book-keeping module.
She then allegedly connived and gave an undisclosed employee of the Council for Legal Education an undisclosed amount for her to facilitate the printing of a certificate regardless of the accused person only passing one module.
The Council for Legal Education employee went on to give the money to Huggins Hardwork Duri who is already on remand.
The certificate was processed although she had not passed the remaining Seven modules and it enabled her to be admitted as a Legal Practitioner.
By doing so, Kovi's action caused prejudice to the good reputation and administration of the Council for Legal.
Kovi went on to approach the High Court of Zimbabwe and made an application to be admitted as a legal Practitioner.
Acting upon the misrepresentation the accused was duly admitted as a legal practitioner.
