WINDHOEK – Magistrate Jennifer Nghishitende last week sentenced a former clerk at the Usakos Magistrate’s Court for fabrication of a full birth certificate.
Elton Gurirab, 36, was fined N$10 000 or in default of payment spend three years in prison.
The magistrate suspended one year and N$4 000 for a period of five years, on condition that he not commits a similar offence during the period of the suspended sentence.
The sentence ended up being N$6 000 and in default of payment to spend two years in prison.
While working as a clerk at the court in 2013, Gurirab fabricated a full birth certificate for a Zimbabwean national who reportedly bribed him.
A Zimbabwean national requested Gurirab to write him the birth certificate and send it to him via courier service in exchange for N$1000.
After receiving the false birth certificate, the Zimbabwean national applied for a Namibian passport and that is how the matter was detected.
Immigration officials realised the full birth certificate was fabricated and as such they traced it to Guribab and upon interrogation he spilt the beans. The prosecutor was Hilma Gottlieb.