HARARE - A Magunje district education human resources manager who allegedly connived with two accomplices to apply for loans from a bank using several civil servants’ pay sheets has appeared before a Harare magistrate.

Sweden Nyamande, 39, yesterday appeared before the court on fraud charges.

According to state papers, Nyamande is in charge of the pay sheets for the whole district.

The court heard that from May to November last year, Nyamande connived with Fortune Torimo and Phillipo Philip and released pay sheets for Charles Clerk and Chitimbe Primary Schools.

The other two have since appeared before the court on same charges.

It is alleged Nyamande was supposed to forward the pay sheets to the provincial education office in Chinhoyi. Prosecutor Tungamirai Chakurira told the court in November last year the missing pay sheets for the two schools were recovered by police officers from Torimo and Phillipo.

The two were caught while in the process of applying for loans in the names of the teachers of the schools in question.

Magistrate Mahwe released Nyamande on $100 bail.

He will be back in court on January 16 for trial. - Ivan Zhakata