Wiriranai Paradza the proprietor of Astelotrans Transport has made a report at Chivhu accusing Mvuma Police of looting 15 tonnes of crates of Castle Lite from his truck going to Zambia from South Africa.
He says Police looted the truck after the driver, Webster
Nhau turned off the highway to drop some smuggled goods at Mavise Business
Centre 10km from Mvuma towards Harare.
The vehicle’s load shifted along the dust road and Police
details found Nhau desperately trying to repack the beer. He allegedly bribed
the cops with some beer in a bid to conceal the case of the smuggled goods.
Police made three loads of beer with their truck, The Mirror was told.
Paradza said that Police loaded the beer into their vehicle
and took it away. Villagers who noticed Police looting the beer joined in
immediately after the Police left and cleared half of the 34 tonnes that the
truck carried, said Paradza.
Villagers used wheelbarrows, scotch carts and cars to loot
the beer.
Apart from the Police and villagers, well known business
people and political leaders are also said to have looted the beer
Midlands Province Police Spokesperson Inspector Emmanuel
Mahoko confirmed the incident but dismissed allegations that Police was involved
in looting.
“The case was handled above board by Police. A Police car
was only used to transport beer to the Station for booking. Hand over, take
over was done on book,” said Mahoko
However, Paradza insisted that Police was the first to loot
from his car and then villagers followed. He said efforts to recover his beer
was thwarted by Police officers who allegedly tipped villagers to hide their
loot.
Paradza reported the case to Chivhu but got frustrated when
Chivhu Police told him to report the matter to Mvuma since the area is under
Chivhu.
“Mvuma Police looted beer from my truck. l even made a
report at Chivhu Police but l heard that the law says l should report to Mvuma
because the incident happened in Mvuma area.
“That is when l gave up because I was going to report to
the same people who looted my truck.
“When we tried to recover some of the loot from individuals
we failed because Police was alerting the looters to hide the beer,” said
Paradza. Masvingo Mirror
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