Police ignore AG’s order to arrest killer

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Police ignore AG’s order to arrest killer

In the run-up to the 2000 general elections MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s assistants – Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya – were petrol-bombed and killed in their car in Buhera.

The murders were committed in broad daylight with several witnesses present, including police officers who did nothing. During the inquest, the judge ordered the arrest of the alleged murderer, Joseph Mwale, a notorious CIO operative in Manicaland. Again, the police did nothing.

Since then several courts, including the High Court, have instructed the police to arrest Mwale. Their excuse has consistently been that they can’t find him – despite the fact that he continues to operate from the CIO headquarters in Manicaland (near the police station in Mutare) where he has been promoted. He continues to draw a state salary and lives in a government house. He has even been given a farm – grabbed by government without compensation from a formerly productive commercial farmer of course.

Such inertia on the part of the police has been increasingly evident since 2000, when the MDC emerged as a viable opposition in Zimbabwean politics and for the first time threatened the hitherto de facto one party state enjoyed by Zanu (PF) since Independence in 1980.

It has become routine for the police to do nothing in cases affecting opposition members. Court judgements are simply ignored.

But now, for the first time the Attorney General’s office, which is empowered by the constitution to prosecute criminals, has got involved. A formal letter was sent to the police in Manicaland giving them a firm deadline – October 6 – to arrest Mwale.

“The accused is facing a charge of murder which was committed in the year 2000. The docket was referred to your office with instructions that you arrest Joseph Mwale and bring him for initial remand. To date we have not received any information pertaining to the progress made by your office,” says the letter.

The deadline has come and gone. Nothing has happened.

Observers say no policeman in Zimbabwe has the courage to arrest a CIO officer for anything involving an opposition supporter. That would be more than their life is worth.

In glaring contrast to this is the enthusiastic zeal with which the police ‘dealt with’ the opposition and trade union leaders who dared take to the streets recently to protest against the ruling party. What a travesty of justice. We feel for the families of those involved.


Word for Today 41 –
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Trouble a Door of Hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth.” Hosea 1:14,15