CHIHURI REWARDS ALLEGED KILLER POLICE

HARARE – Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri has promoted Inspector Mawone, the alleged killer of a female police recruit during training in November last year, to the position of Chief Inspector.It was not possible over the weekend to ascertain the first name of Mawone, an instructor at Harare’s Morris Depot police training school.

Sources in the police force say, however, that he has also since been drafted into a team of police officers due for deployment on a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Kosovo in August.

Mawone was accused last year of viciously assaulting police recruit Pamela Mudzingwa resulting in her death. Mudzingwa was 26 years old. Those who witnessed the assault said the attack was so savage that the recruit soiled her pants before she lapsed into unconsciousness.

Mudzingwa was rushed to the Morris Depot clinic from where she was referred to Parirenyatwa Hospital. She was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Mawone, who was not formally charged with murder or assault, was later “exonerated” on the basis of a postmortem report which claimed the death was caused by a low sugar level in the blood of the deceased.

Mudzingwa’s relatives insisted the postmortem was falsified to protect the police instructor. There were claims that Deputy Commissioner Barbara Mandizha ordered police details from Harare’s Homicide section not to prefer any charges against Mawone, who is said to be related to her. Mandizha is said a powerful force in the police force.

Vicious assaults on police recruits by their trainers were captured in a recent video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W96la5p9N18) which was clandestinely short and leaked to the press by sources close to the incidents.

“Mawone’s promotion and deployment for peacekeeping duties is a reward for the ‘good job’ he is doing,” one of the police sources said.

“It is highly unlikely that one can be deployed for UN duties when the police command is not satisfied with one’s performance.” It is the ambition of all police officers in Zimbabwe’s police force to take part in the lucrative UN missions.

Those successfully deployed for such duties are paid US$130 per day for the entire one year duration of their mission. Civil servants in Zimbabwe currently earn $100 per month across the board.

Zimbabwe’s police force has conveniently used UN deployments to reward “loyal” officers. Over the past years, loyalty within the police force has been measured in terms of open support for President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF.

- TheZimbabweTimes