BULAWAYO:- AN inquest into the murder of two Bulawayo men by police detectives begins in Bulawayo next week at the Bulawayo Magistrates Court.According to correspondence between Matabeleland magistrate in charge, John Masimba, the police and relatives of the two men shot by police, the inquest is set for 21 October with evidence being led from seven witnesses, six of them police officers attached to the Homicide Section.
Nehemiah Vumbunu and Andrew Jabulani Sibanda were shot dead by police detectives in April.
Police sources say the two had undergone torture at the hands of the detectives to force them to admit to charges of armed robbery.
Police sources say the two died during torture, leading to the police detectives later shooting them and then claiming that they shot them dead because they were trying to evade arrest.
But family members of the two disputed the allegations and hired a lawyer and filed charges against the police in court.
In their application, the relatives through their lawyers, Doreen Vundla assisted by Christopher Dube-Banda of Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners wanted police to be ordered to “look into the circumstances leading and surrounding the death of the two.
The lawyers also wrote to Snr Asst Comm Muchemwa to furnish them with details as recorded in the Detention Book relating to their client’s son, the circumstances surrounding his death and whether any action is being taken or considered against the person who caused the death of their client’s son.
But the CID Co-ordinator for the Southern region, Assistant Commissioner Erasmus Makodza, responded by saying Sibanda had not been lodged in police cells as “he was assisting police with investigations from the time of his arrest until his intended escape from lawful custody”.
This effectively meant that no details could be found in the Detention Book, thereby raising suspicions surrounding their arrest, torture and shooting.
Post published in: Politics