The Herald (Zimbabwe)

TOP COPS NAMED IN $30K BRIBE CLAIM:

- Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter

TWO senior police officers, Chief Superinten­dent Nyaradzai Majachani and Superinten­dent Shepherd Tachiona allegedly received $30 000 bribe from a Croco Motors official who reportedly smuggled two vehicles into the country, the court heard yesterday.

This emerged when Superinten­dent Nyambo Viera was being cross-examined by Harare lawyer Mr Jonathan Samukange in the case in which Central Intelligen­ce Organisati­on (CIO) informer Delish Nguwaya is making an applicatio­n for referral of his matter to the Concourt.

Apart from the alleged $30 000 bribe, the court heard that Chief Supt Majachani and Supt Tachiona were the brains behind extortion of the Chinese business community in Zimbabwe.

Mr Samukange asked Supt Viera to comment on the allegation­s against the two officers, which had been initially revealed in court by CIO deputy director Mr Kizito Gweshe while testifying.

Mr Gweshe told the court that he had received the informatio­n from Nguwaya who claimed that the two senior officers would send him and junior officers to hit targeted Chinese businesspe­ople before sharing the loot.

However, Supt Viera denied that the mentioned senior officers were corrupt adding that they were investigat­ed and cleared of any wrongdoing.

He said Nguwaya implicated Chief Supt Majachani in more than 10 cases.

He further added that there was no need to interview Chief Supt Majachani over the allegation­s by Nguwaya saying there was no nexus linking her to the offences.

Supt Viera said Supt Tachiona and two other implicated CIO senior officers were interviewe­d and cleared.

Mr Samukange then questioned: “Gweshe informed this court that Nguwaya told him that in his presence, Majachani and Tachiona received $30 000 as bribe from Croco Motors, what would be your comment?

“That is incorrect, no one was interviewe­d about Moses Chingwena’s (Croco Motors) case as he never reported against the senior officers so it was Nguwaya who merely said so. Chingwena was not co-operating with the investigat­ing officers,” Supt Viera said.

Mr Samukange then hit back: “You said you investigat­ed all the cases against the top officials and you cleared them but now you are saying Croco Motors did not co-operate, so it means the case was not investigat­ed. How did you know that the Croco Motors version by Nguwaya was false when the case was not investigat­ed?”

Nguwaya said his team tried to locate the two smuggled vehicles in an attempt to impound them but failed to locate them.

Nguwaya is jointly charged with a member of the CIO, Zano Vengayi (33), Clever Gadzikwa (36) and Mbereki Mbizo Nyathi, who is a former member of the CIO.

They are accused of extorting about $20 000 from Baoning Guo, a Chinese national.

It also emerged in court that Supt Tachiona was the one who assembled the accused persons and ordered them to hit on Guo, who was his friend.

The court also heard that according to Nguwaya, Chief Supt Majachani would befriend the Chinese business people before sending the “team” to extort money from them.

“When Gweshe testified, he said from the informatio­n he got from Nguwaya, Majachani would befriend the Chinese community, get to know them, how they operate and how they bank their money. She would then give the informatio­n to Tachiona and the junior officers including Nguwaya and would send them to extort them. Did you investigat­e all these allegation­s? Mr Samukange asked.

In response Supt Viera professed ignorance of the said allegation­s adding that during the course of their investigat­ions, Mr Gweshe never mentioned anything about the particular allegation against Chief Supt Majachani.

Mr Samukange said: “Gweshe told this court that he actually told you that these senior officers were the ones terrorisin­g the Chinese community thus there was a rift between you and the CIO officer when he told you that you were shielding your senior officers.”

Mr Samukange further accused Supt Viera of removing a document from the docket, which had evidence linking Supt Tachiona to the offence of extortion which Nguwaya is being charged with.

Mr Samukange said to substantia­te his claims, which he gave to the CIO as an informer, Nguwaya told the CIO that the day before Guo was extorted, he had exchanged several calls with Tachiona and to prove that he (Supt Tachiona) was also in the game, he obtained a printout from his service provider.

According to the defence, the printout showed that there were 17 calls made between Nguwaya and Tachiona a day before the offence was committed.

“Why did you remove the call history from the docket when you took it to the NPA?” Mr Samukange asked.

Supt Viera said it was removed because the call history was obtained illegally without a court order by Mr Gweshe but Mr Samukange insisted that it was obtained by his client hence he did not need a court order to get his own call history printout.

The police and the CIO recently set up a task force to cleanse the security forces of corruption after Nguwaya supplied informatio­n to Mr Gweshe on alleged corruption involving members of the CIO and top police officers.

Addressing the court recently, Mr Gweshe said as a team which included Supt Viera, a deputy inspector Mandizha and a district intelligen­ce officer Mpengesi, they interviewe­d Nguwaya and agreed that they wanted to use him as a witness after giving them all the informatio­n implicatin­g senior officers, which he did.

After getting the informatio­n, in some parts Nguwaya giving self-incriminat­ing evidence and recording a statement, Mr Gweshe said Supt Viera, who was leading the police in the task team, decided to charge Nguwaya.

And for that reason, Nguwaya, who is now an accused person, is making an applicatio­n for referral of his matter to the Constituti­onal Court.

Prosecutor Mr Michael Reza is opposing the applicatio­n saying the informer was never granted immunity.

“I had explained to my team that Nguwaya did not qualify to be a State witness and that he was not a proper candidate for immunity but Mr Gweshe beseeched us saying he had given Nguwaya his word that he would protect him and I was disputing the need to give him immunity because the informatio­n he was giving us was fake,” Supt Viera said in his evidence in court.

The matter continues on June 26 before magistrate Mr Temba Kuwanda.

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