19/08/2026
EDUCATION Permanent Secretary for Administration Norian Muneku has told a Ndola Magistrate's Court how a 41-year-old Ndola man allegedly forged her signature on fake recruitment letters issued to prospective teachers.
Blessings Sinyangwe of Northrise Township is facing one count each of forgery, uttering false documents and obtaining money by false pretences.
The forged letters are believed to have been authored and signed by senior officials from the Ministry of Education headquarters in Lusaka and the Copperbelt provincial offices between 2018 and June 2026.
When the matter came up before Magistrate Sumson Mumba for continuation of trial, Ms Muneku told the court that on July 26, 2026, she received a phone call from an informer who said he had come across four letters bearing forged signatures of herself and another person.
Ms Muneku said upon receiving the information, she advised the informer to report the matter to the police, which he did.
She said that after some time, a police officer went to her office in Lusaka with the four purported recruitment letters.
Ms Muneku said when she checked the letters, she discovered that the signatures were not hers and that they were not standard letters from the Ministry of Education because official letters were supposed to bear the initials of the person who typed them.
"When I sign, there are copies that remain at the Ministry of Education, which include at the Human Resource Department (HR). So I asked if there were letters that remained at the Ministry of Education, but we did not find them," she said.
Ms Muneku said if the letters were genuine recruitment letters from the Ministry of Education, they would have contained a Teaching Service (TS) number, giving an example of "Mary Zulu, number 50".
She further told the court that even the handwriting on the letters was not hers.
"There was a letter for Uniece Mutoba, Ireen Banda and two letters for Mwinga Chimunya. The original copy is always with the person who has been transferred or employed, which was not the case in this matter," she said.
Trial continues in the matter.
Mapulanga Libinga | Times of Zambia
