A Harare man has told a court that he got a military
uniform he used to terrorise residents from the Zanu PF headquarters in a case
that might shed some light on recent disturbances that rocked the country.
Shepherd Magorimbo, who was last week arrested for a string
of robberies, told prosecutors during vetting before his court appearance that
he was a member of the Zanu PF youth league.
He said he got the army uniform at the Zanu PF headquarters
in Harare. “We were given the uniform at the party office,” Magorimbo said in
response to a question by the prosecutor.
Magorimbo is now languishing in remand prison, a week after
his arrest. He will be back in court tomorrow after his case was postponed
three times last week.
Magorimbo was clad in Zanu PF regalia in one of the
pictures that went viral after his arrest while in other pictures he appeared
in military uniform.
Police and the army have claimed that rogue soldiers were
responsible for the shooting to death of protesters during the January
demonstrations.
Magorimbo is being charged with two counts of robbery
committed in a case presided over by magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa.
According to prosecutor Sheperd Makonde, on January 15 at
the Seke Road flyover, Magorimbo, who was clad in the ZNA camouflage uniform,
together with his four accomplices who are still at large, accosted Tapfumaneyi
Muviyi and started accusing him of being a thief and threatened to take him to
Harare Central Police Station.
Instead, they took him to the Seke Road flyover, forced him
to reveal his EcoCash pin number and transferred $54 into their account and
they also took $94 cash, two Samsung mobile phones and two Nokia mobile phones.
Magorimbo was positively identified by Muviyi. He is also
accused of robbing a motorist, Nicholus Mupazi, along Baines Avenue in Harare.
Magorimbo, together with his two accomplices who were also
clad in army uniform, got into Mupazi’s vehicle, opened the glove compartment
and took R60 and a Samsung mobile phone and went away.
A soldier, Norest Sosera, appeared in the same court
charged with robbery after he teamed up with his colleagues to rob foreign
currency cash dealers in Chitungwiza.
The prosecutor Makonde opposed bail saying they received a
call from army commander general Valerio Sibanda ordering them not to release
civilian suspects who commit offences in army uniform saying doing so would
tarnish the image of the army. Standard
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