Senior police officer in court for asking for bribe to transfer colleague to traffic section

Inspector Takawira Sagireta, who is the officer-in-charge (board) at Police General Headquarters (PGHQ) in Harare was asked not to plead when he appeared before magistrate Josephine Sande on criminal abuse of office charges. He was granted him $100 bail and remanded the matter to September 1 to facilitate further investigations.

The court heard that sometime in September 2016, Sagireta approached Sergeant Sibongile Nyadundu, who is stationed at Mashonaland East ICT system administration, and told her that he could facilitate her transfer to the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s national traffic section. He allegedly demanded a $125 bribe from Nyadundu. On September 28 2016, Nyadundu’s husband, Tapiwa Munamato, who is employed by the Zimbabwe National Army, made a mobile money transfer of $75 into Sagireta’s CABS Bank account before he made another transfer of $50 into Sagireta’s mobile wallet the next day to bring the total to $125.

Nyadundu’s husband filed a report at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) in May this year after Sarigeta failed to facilitate the transfer. On June 2, Zacc referred the matter to PGHQ for further investigations and later referred it to the Criminal Investigation Department’s Commercial Crimes Division, leading to Sagireta’s arrest.