BULAWAYO – Six police officers are due before a court in Bulawayo on Saturday, accused of brutally assaulting two sisters for allegedly breaching coronavirus lockdown regulations.
Pictures of the two women’s badly bruised bodies which circulated online prompted the intervention of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) which assisted the two women in filing a formal police complaint.
National police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said six people had been arrested. ZimLive has seen a subpoena with the names of six police officers, all of them based at the Cowdray Park police base.
The officers are named as Tichaona Zariro, Christabel Munyondo, Elizabeth Denhere, Patson Gumoreyi, Zibusiso Masuku and Simbarashe Bvekwa.
Sisters Nokuthula and Ntombizodwa Mpofu, aged 37 and 30 respectively, told reporters they were leaving Pick n Pay supermarket in Cowdray Park on April 16 when a police officer lashed out with a truncheon, damaging Ntombizodwa’s phone.
When she pointed out the damage to her phone, the two women were handcuffed to their backs and repeatedly beaten with baton sticks.
“We asked them why they were beating us and they said we were rude,” said Nokuthula.
The women said they were also subjected to tribal slurs and sexist comments about their looks.
“They told us they would teach us a lesson. They said they had better-looking women than us in their homes. They said our being ‘yellow boned’ (light skinned) did not exempt us from the government stay-at-home order.”
Bleeding and badly bruised, they were thrown into the cells at the police base and denied medical attention.
They were only released at around midday on April 17 after being forced to pay Z$200 fines each for “conduct likely to provoke breach of peace.”
The two sisters received medical attention at Mpilo Central Hospital.
Assistant Commissioner Nyathi said: “We have arrested six individuals who will appear in court in connection with the matter.
“I want to remind our officers that they should not get carried away when they perform their duties. They should stick to the mandate which the police have in terms of the constitution of the country, in terms of the deployment which would have been done by their commanders. Anyone who goes outside the deployment order and does their own things will face the full the wrath of the law.”
Leslie Ncube, a commissioner with the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) said they had to step in to help the victims.
“These women were brutally attacked by male police officers who beat them on the thighs and buttocks while insulting them. We are told that the officers were insulting them using derogatory language which also fuels ethnical hatred,” Ncube said.
“The victims told us that the officers were telling them that there is nothing special with their hips as they also have wives with even bigger hips. So clearly the police officers became too personal instead of executing their police duties.
“The police are supposed to be the custodians of law and are supposed to protect the lives of the vulnerable in our society.”
