The officers,
through their lawyer Tafadzwa Muvhami, have filed an urgent chamber application
citing police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga, Assistant Commissioner
(Harare province) Dube and Criminal Investigations Department Sergeant
Zaranyika as respondents.
Assistant Inspector Raymond Chidyagwai and 44 other
officers were ordered to report for duty on January 4 at Chikurubi Detention
Barracks. Upon arrival, the officers were committed to hard labour without a
time limit by the respondents as punishment after their recent suspension from
the force for various reasons.
Since their arrival, the officers have reportedly been
ordered by the respondents to carry out tasks that do not have anything to do
with their official duties.
“From January 4, 2021, we have been ordered to carry bricks
from one point to the other, sweeping the yard, watering the garden and working
in the police fields and our supervisor’s fields, which have nothing to do with
our duties.
“We are also ordered to fetch water for our supervisors and
weed their gardens for their personal benefit. “The respondents have labelled
us bandits and we actually work more than the other members who are committed
to serve their sentences at Chikurubi DB,” Chidyagwai’s affidavit reads.
The officers also claim they are being exposed to inhumane
punishment and treatment by their superiors. In their application, the officers
want the High Court to grant an order that Dube and Zaranyika have no authority
to place them on indefinite punishment as no court has convicted them of any
wrongdoing.
“The applicants have not been committed to hard labour by any
court of law and it appears that the 1st and 2nd respondents have turned
themselves into a court of law with unfettered powers,” the officers claim.
The police bosses are yet to respond to the application.
Daily News
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