A-BEITBRIDGE villager Knowledge Sibanda was last Thursday shot and injured by a soldier as he was driving near the now defunct River Ranch Diamond Mine.
When police officers attended the scene, the soldier’s
colleagues allegedly chased them away and destroyed evidence.
National police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi said he can only get finer details about the issue on Monday.
“If you can call me tomorrow I might have details. At the
moment I don’t have much,” Nyathi said.
“They fired at me and hit my car nine times. They had not
even attempted to stop me, when I passed by they just started opening fire.
When police based at Makakavhule Clinic tried to attend to the scene, the
soldiers chased them away,” Sibanda told NewsDay.
“I was grazed by a bullet in the head, but I do not have
serious injuries. These people (soldiers) are causing a lot of problems in our
village, and we have no protection because they are a law unto themselves. You
should have seen how they humiliated the police,” he said.
Confusion is reigning supreme in Beitbridge where an
operation against smuggling has been on-going, and has resulted in people
beaten up or dying in the hands of law enforcement agents.
In December last year,
police detective Sergeant Sikhelele Ncube told the court that a tout
called Abel Gumbo who operated at the
border town was shot by the police in Lutumba in May this year after he
was mistaken for an armed robber.
Gumbo whose family is yet to get justice was shot dead by a
policeman who was part of a team deployed in an operation against smuggling. Newsday
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