Harare – Suspended Council for Legal Education (CLE) Executive Secretary Huggins Duri and lawyer Linda Kovi have been acquitted of fraud charges after a full trial before Harare regional magistrate Lazini Ncube.

In a ruling delivered last week, Magistrate Ncube found that the State had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, citing insufficient evidence and a lack of credible testimony. The court also exposed serious irregularities in the CLE’s examination processes and result dispatching mechanisms.

Central to the case was the testimony of Shorai Mupunga, a CLE official who the court found to be more of an accomplice than a reliable witness. Her evidence was described as lacking credibility and corroboration, further weakening the State’s case.

The fraud allegations stemmed from claims that Duri and Kovi had conspired to fraudulently secure a certificate of completion for Kovi, which enabled her admission as a legal practitioner in Zimbabwe.

Kovi, 34, an Administrator at Kanoti and Partners Public Interest Lawyers, obtained her LLB from the University of Africa in Lusaka in 2019. She subsequently registered with CLE in 2020 to undertake the mandatory conversion exams for foreign-trained law graduates. According to the State, she failed most of the required modules, including Civil Procedure, Statutes, and Ethics, and never sat for the Bookkeeping exam.

The prosecution alleged that Kovi, having failed to meet the certification requirements, approached Duri for assistance. Duri allegedly directed Mupunga to unlawfully include Kovi’s name on the list of successful candidates. A certificate was subsequently issued and collected by Duri, ultimately leading to Kovi’s admission to the High Court.

The State was represented by CLE Finance and Administration Manager Joe Zimba.

With both Duri and Kovi now fully cleared of any wrongdoing, the case has raised fresh questions about internal accountability within the CLE and the integrity of the certification process for legal practitioners in Zimbabwe.