A man from Harare who allegedly used a forged letter supposedly from a school headmaster to facilitate the processing of his children's birth certificates appeared in court over the weekend.

The father, Benson Ayani (36) of Highlands suburb, is jointly charged with Munashe Fungai (43) of Kuwadzana Extension, who made the forgery to order. They appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Dennis Mangosi charged with forgery and supplying false information for the purpose of registering the birth of a child.

They were granted $50 bail each and will return to court on Thursday, pending the finalisation of investigations.

Prosecuting, Mr Takudzwa Jambawu, alleged that on Thursday last week, Ayani called at the Market Square office of the Registrar of Births and Deaths at around 9am and told the officer serving him that he wanted to register the births of his son and daughter since he wanted to transfer them to a new school in Chisipite from Arnoldine Primary School in Headlands.

The officer told Ayani that he had to bring a hard copy letter from the previous school to confirm that they were former pupils, not a soft copy he was using.

After a couple of hours, Ayani produced a hard copy letter from the headmaster for the registration officer, but that officer knew it was not possible for him to get the letter in such a short time.

So, he inspected the paper closely and noticed that it was a forged document. After being quizzed by the officer, Ayani admitted that he got the forged document from Fungai, leading to their arrest.