A 42-YEAR-OLD Karoi widow is up in arms with the police for
failing to repair her house damaged during a pre-dawn raid for a suspected
poacher in January last year.
A distraught Millicent Mangeya was in tears as she narrated
how she had failed to get tenants for her four-roomed house that could have
sustained her and her unemployed 20-year-old son.
Potential tenants are shunning the house that still has
dark sooty walls from teargas, while burnt electrical pipes and wirings easily
sell out the poverty-stricken and emotional living the two endure daily.
The damaged roof leaks during rainy seasons as Mangeya
awaits for the police to confirm whether they will repair her property and
replace destroyed household goods.
She alleged on the fateful day, her son, Tatenda, was
brutally assaulted by officers.
Mangeya said the officers demanded to know the whereabouts
of their tenant, a suspected poacher, who had gunned two of their colleagues
and an ordinary member of the public in Chipinge in November 2015.
“No one has compensated me for what we lost including
household goods such as a bed, wardrobe, kitchen unit, clothes, a television
set, DVD player and other valuables,” a tearful Mangeya said last week.
“Our crime was that we had a tenant whom they wanted. But
beside the shootout and teargassing that set alight our property, police are
still mum on how we will get our property.”
She recounted how at least 10 officers, some of them from
CID Harare, and the local dog section raided the house in Chikangwe
high-density suburb.
“The armed police officers combed the house, while dogs
were on guard. Three warning shots were fired and they called everyone to come
out of the house,” she said.
Tatenda, who was alone in the house, came out.
“Just as I was coming out, they threw teargas inside the
house and I was handcuffed. Some police officers took turns to beat me and the
smoke nearly choked me,” the 20-year-old Tatenda said.
“It was more like a brutal movie style and I helplessly
watched our house going up in smoke, while some bullets were being fire through
the asbestos.”
An officer, who was the leader of the team, reportedly told
neighbours to stay in their houses.
“We saw them beating him and throwing tear gas while firing
shots at the house. It was like a war zone and the house was engulfed in smoke.
We were also affected by the tear smoke even from a distance,” a neighbour,
Ratidzai Munenga, said.
However, some neighbours gathered courage and came to
Tatenda’s rescue, as they vouched he was not a criminal.
“We have known Tatenda as a quiet person and the brutal
attack on him was uncalled for,” another resident, Robson Tapera, said.
Tatenda said as he watched the house and property burning
while in handcuffs, he was thrown into a kombi as a suspect.
Mangeya said the suspect, who is currently on the run, had
lived at their house for almost five years.
“We hardly saw him, but his wife was around with three
children and she battled for survival. We used to share the little we get
together as the husband was hardly at home,” Mangeya said.
“When he occasionally came home, he used to say he is a
miner. We never suspected anything as he was hardly here.”
She said three weeks prior to the incident, some armed
officers raided the house and assaulted the suspect’s wife.
“We had not seen the suspect for at least three months and
never thought that he was an armed poacher. We believed his word that he was a
stone dealer and miner,” Mangeya said.
She said the suspect’s wife fled after she was brutally
assaulted by the police and they have never heard a word from her.
Mangeya said although they lodged a complaint with the
local police nothing, has been done to repair the house and replace burnt
properties.
“I am a widow and cannot fend for myself and have been
using rentals for my upkeep. But police are not assisting us to repair the
house they damaged,” she said.
“We need recourse as the brutal attack on my son was
unwarranted. We had to get assistance for medication after the attack.”
The suspect poacher, known as Nziramasanga, allegedly
killed Sergeants Wengai Mazhara (39) and Robert Shumba (35) during a raid at
his hideout at Chipinge’s Naffaton Farm.
The officers had information that the late Chaita Simango
was harbouring armed poachers.
Local and provincial police officers referred questions to
national police spokesperson Senior Assistant Charity Charamba, who was not
reachable. Newsday
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