Traffic cops in Zimbabwe dragged to court over missing US $400

The case in which three police officers are facing allegations of stealing US$400 from a car belonging to a Harare woman was last week deferred to Monday next week to allow the court to gather evidence.

Gladmore Munodawainda (34), Edson Ngwenyama (27) and Lovejoy Zamba (28), who are stationed at Southerton Police Traffic Section in Harare appeared before Mbare magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje on theft charges involving US$400 belonging to Ms Netsai Manyau (42), a secretary with CABS in Borrowdale, Harare.

The trio denied the charge.

According to prosecutor Mr Lawrence Gangarahwe, on June 8 at around 10am the three accused officers were on traffic duty along Highglen Road near ZRP Glen Norah.

They stopped Ms Manyau, who was driving a Toyota Allex (registration number AEL 8994) and asked for her driver’s licence, which she did not have. Ms Manyau offered to go to her house to collect the driver’s licence and left her car at the roadblock.

She returned at around 11.30am and discovered that the officers had already taken her car to Southerton Police Station.

Ms Manyau followed them to the station and when she opened her car she discovered that US$400 of the US$425 that she had left in her car was missing.

The police officers’ lawyer accused Ms Manyau of not doing a proper handover and takeover of her belong- ings.

He defended his clients’ decision to drive the car to the station saying they wanted to ensure the security of the vehicle.

Mrs Manyau argued that she did not do a proper handover-takeover because she got confused after her experience at the roadblock.

She said although there was no proper handover, the police had no right to drive the car without her consent.

Source: www.allafrica.com