CIO boss faces arrest
The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management (DNWM) has written to the police to arrest six top police and state Central Intelligence Organisation officers for allegedly stealing game meat poached from opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party legislator Roy Bennet’ s Charleswood Estate farm in Chimanimani district in Manicaland province.
Bennet’s lawyer, Arnold Tsunga, has also written to police authorities in Manicaland requesting that they take action against their colleagues.
Tsunga told the Daily News yesterday he was also under instruction from his client to pursue a private prosecution against the police and intelligence officers. In a letter to the police officer in charge of crime in Manicaland province, Killian Mandisodza, the DNWM’s senior investigations officer, Felix Matenda, detailed how a police assistant inspector Mupfuriranwa and CIO boss in Chimanimani, Joseph Mwale, and four others allegedly seized from Bennet’s workers game meat that had been poached from Charleswood.
The wildlife officer did not specify the date when the incident occurred. The police and intelligence officers allegedly hid the carcasses which could have been used as evidence against the poachers, according to Matenda. The poachers are believed to be suspected ruling Zanu PF party supporters who seized part of the farm during the illegal invasion of white-owned farms last year by pro-government mobs.
Matenda’s letter, written last month, reads in part: “Police disposed of the exhibits to include meat. Not even the skin was preserved for prosecution . . . my opinion, which I would like to put forward (for) your serious consideration, is that your officers committed an offence.
Apart from the Police Act that you can apply in punishing them, I would like to suggest that they be charged in a criminal court in terms of Section 4 (a) (b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. You could be of better ideas or opinion, but there will be no better options than this.” Mandisodza could not be reached for comment yesterday. He was said to have visited Rusape town on business.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, who was still ascertaining the details pertaining to the matter by the time of going to print last night, could not provide details on what action, if any, the law enforcement agency had taken against the police and intelligence officers.
The DNWM’s head in Manicaland province, Henry Charidza, yesterday confirmed that his officers had written to the police but he would not disclose what action had been taken against the police and intelligence officers. Charidza said: “I did not write the letter myself. Look for Matenda because he is the one following up on that one. Anyway, I will need a written directive from my bosses to comment further.”
Police sources, however, told this newspaper yesterday that because of political interference no action was likely to be taken against the police and especially Mwale, whom they described as untouchable. Mwale, who is barred from Charleswood Estate by the High Court, has been accused by the MDC on several occasions of committing or aiding violence and human rights abuses against its supporters in Chimanimani.
Former High Court judge James Devittie directed the Attorney-General (AG)’s Office two years ago to have Mwale investigated on charges that he and others murdered MDC activists Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election. Although the AG’s Office says it has ordered the police to probe Mwale, to date no action has been taken yet against the CIO agent over the MDC’s activists’ deaths. A police officer, who spoke on condition he was not named, told the Daily News: “Matenda’s letter has been gathering dust.
Issues surrounding Charleswood Estate are very political and difficult to handle. It seems Mwale and his guys in Chimanimani have full blessings of the chefs to do whatever they want at the farm and this has made the untouchable.” In his letter to Manicaland police, Tsunga claimed that Mwale and his colleagues were even heard urging the poachers to kill more animals at Charleswood. ‘”What surprised our clients is that when the police attended the scene in the company or under the leadership of Joseph Mwale, they allowed the poachers to go scot-free and loaded the meat into CIO operative Mwale’s vehicle,” wrote Tsunga.
According to Matenda, Mwale and his colleagues threatened to shoot the farm workers for arresting the suspected poachers. Matenda wrote: “I would not imagine a reasonable police officer who would arm himself to go and recover meat from an already disarmed group of poachers. Not only to arm themselves in this case, they even went to threaten the people who had effected a citizens’ arrest by cocking their firearms. “It is very disgraceful for police officers to be seen doing such things in the eyes of the public.”
-The Daily News
Posted by Wellington Chadehumbe
on August 23, 2003. Filed under Politics.
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