TWO employees at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo accused of pocketing $30 paid by a patient for an X-ray check have been acquitted following the death of one of the State witnesses.
BY SILAS NKALA
Titus Muvengwa and Busani Mpofu, both of Gwabalanda suburb, Bulawayo, pleaded not guilty to the charge of abuse of office when they appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Merlyn Mutshina.
At the close of the State case, the magistrate found them not guilty and acquitted them.
Prosecutor Raymond Makaza had told the court that on April 24 at 12 noon, Rosemary Ncube went to Mpilo accompanied by her younger sister Pretty Ncube.
Rosemary, who was ill, was referred to the X-ray department for a spinal scan.
It was the State’s case that Pretty went to the X-ray department, leaving her sister on the ground floor to enquire about the charge for the scan.
On arrival, she allegedly met Muvengwa at the reception, who told her that the X-ray cost $50.
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Pretty went back to her sister to enquire if she had the $50 and Rosemary told her that she only had $30.
Muvengwa was alleged to have connived with Mpofu, an X-ray operator. Mpofu was said to have asked for the $30 from Rosemary and she had complied, before he attended to her and pocketed the money.
The alleged offence was discovered when Vengai Mugwidi, a risk and loss control officer, asked for records from the patient concerning the X-ray and Rosemary failed to produce any. She instead revealed that she had paid the money to Muvengwa, leading to the arrest of the two.
When called to testify, Pretty told the court that her sister who had been ill was now late and she was not able to relate what really happened.
