Riot police patrol the streets after police earlier banned planned protests by the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare, Zimbabwe, August 16, 2019. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
A ZIMBABWEAN court has ordered authorities to pay US$13 000 to two
victims of police brutality, who sued Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)
for negligence, after some law enforcements agents carelessly shot and
wounded them last year in Chitungwiza.
The two Chitungwiza residents Tashinga Mugwara, who was aged 19 years
in 2022 and Pamela Muchazorwewa, were shot on 27 June 2022 while at a
liquefied gas refuelling station at Taita Shops in Chitungwiza by some
ZRP officers, who were reportedly pursuing a robbery suspect before
they ordered everyone, who was at the gas filling station to lie down.
On 28 June 2022, ZRP issued a statement in which the law enforcement
agency acknowledged shooting Mugwara and Muchazorwewa and explained
the shooting as having occurred as police officers were chasing after
Denis Madondo, whom they claimed to be a fugitive armed robber.
Mugwara and Muchazorwewa were assisted by Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, to sue Home Affairs and Cultural
Heritage Minister Hon. Kazembe Kazembe and Zimbabwe Republic Police
(ZRP) Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga, for negligently shooting
them.
In summons filed at the High Court in October 2022, Mugwara and
Muchazorwewa claimed payment of damages amounting to US$15 000 each
arising from the negligent conduct of ZRP officers, who left them
hospitalised after they negligently shot them.
Out of the US$15 000, US$5 000 was listed as damages for pain and
suffering, US$5 000 for contumelia and affront to dignity while US$5
000 was damages for future medical expenses.
In the case of Mugwara, he was shot on his right hand near the elbow
at close range while the bullet, which shot him went through his lower
body and went out through his back resulting in him suffering severe
injuries and had to be operated at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
It was feared that Mugwara will potentially suffer from adhesive bowel
obstruction in future as a result of the injuries which he sustained
owing to the unwarranted shooting by ZRP officers.
Muchazorwewa was shot while on her way home after she had picked up
her daughter from school and was severely injured and had to undergo
an operation while detained in hospital too.
In court, Chinopfukutwa argued that in shooting Mugwara and
Muchazorwewa, ZRP officers had acted negligently as the duo had not
committed any criminal offence, was unarmed and had not threatened the
law enforcement agents in any way which justified their resort to
severe force.
The human rights lawyer argued that it was reasonably foreseeable in
the circumstances that for ZRP officers to resort to the use of live
ammunition at a shopping centre, would result in injury to innocent
civilians.
Recently, two High Court Judges Justice Rogers Manyangadze and Justice
Anne-Lucy Mungwari, ordered Matanga and Hon. Kazembe to pay US$6 500
each to Mugwara and Muchazorwewa as compensation for ZRP’s negligence
in the discharge of its law enforcement duties.