Yesterday, two Harare police officers who had been detained for setting up roadblocks to demand money from kombi drivers showed up in court.
When Kelvin Nyabanga and Learnmore Mutaurwa appeared before Mr. Donald Ndirowei, the Harare magistrate, they were charged with extortion.
According to the State’s evidence, on Sunday, police personnel at ZRP Mabvuku conspired with Nyabanga to extort money from kombi drivers on the City-Epworth route. The police officers allegedly did this by conducting traffic blitzes and manding roadblocks along Chiremba Road upon orders.
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Under the programme, kombis travelling that route may bypass the checkpoint without being stopped as long as they paid bribes of US$5 per day or US$30 per week for each vehicle.
The Chance Shopping Centre in Hatfield is where Nyabanga was stationed strategically, according to the court, to collect cash from cars between the hours of 7 and 10 in the morning.
Following the payment of bribes, Nyabanga would compile a list of the qualifying kombis and deliver it to the police at the roadblock. The police would then let the bribe payers to pass through while arresting and impounded the kombis of those who had not paid.
However, the lawless police officers encountered a law-abiding individual who travels the City-Epworth route and owns two kombis.
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After learning about the bribe plan, he went to Nyabanga, who advised him to pay $30 per car every week to keep his cars from being seized by the police.
He reported this to higher police authority since he thought it was wrong.
Tuesday saw the setting up of a trap, which led to Nyabanga’s arrest and the retrieval of the trap money. Nyabanga then used their WhatsApp conversations to incriminate Mutaurwa.
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