Tinaani
Nyabereka
Some police officers
stationed at Gweru Rural Police Base were recently arraigned before Midlands
Provincial Magistrate Tayengwa Sangster for abuse of office and were remanded
out of custody to June 18 on $1000 bail each.
They were charged for
criminal abuse of duty as defined in section 174(I) (a) (b) and for extortion
as defined in section 134 (I) (a) (b) of the Criminal Law Codification and
Reform Act Chapter 9.23.
Magumise Mugwagwa (42),
Goodhope Chitimbe (31), David Mandimutsira (35), Bruce Chikwanda (35) Freddy
Mahupete (35), Tonderai Gomana (39) and Joyful Magumise (32) were not asked to
plead.
The State’s Margaret
Mukucha says on April 25, the group hatched a plan to swindle Khumbulani
Ngwenya’s shop at Shimrock Mine in Lower Gweru.
Driving an unregistered
private Honda Fit, they accosted Khumbulani’s younger brother Tawanda for
selling beer without a licence.
They seized some
alcohol and loaded it into their car but Tawanda quickly informed his brother
Khumbulani who tried in vain to reason with Magumise whom he knew at personal
level, and he had to pay them $1000 for the stock to be released.
They however demanded fuel
for their car and he gave them 20 litres of diesel
On another day
Chikwanda, Magumise, Freddy Mahupete and Gomana conducted a raid at 5
Kitchenburg Farm Matobo Rd Gweru where they approached Alice Kwangari (a
shopkeeper) and told her they were investigating drug peddling at the property.
Kwangari tried to bar
them from getting into the property but they forced their way and ransacked the
place, threatening to arrest her after finding cases beer.
They ordered her to immediately
take stock of the beer and it amounted to $10 000, and in a bid to be spared
arrest, Kwangari agreed to pay $1000 and she informed the shop owner who later
came and managed to get the figure revised downwards to $500.
On another day
Chikwanda and Magumise approached Dumoluhle Ngwenya at Shimrock Mine and
threatened to arrest and confiscate his beer and that of surrounding shop
operators whom they accused of contravening Covid-19 lockdown regulations by
selling beer.
They ordered the
complainant to go around collecting $150 from each of the six shop owners and
they earned themselves $1050 in the process.
