Harare High Court judge Nicholas Mathonsi on Wednesday awarded Gogo Lilian Chinyerere (64), a victim of police brutality, $13 500 as damages for shock, pain and suffering. Gogo Chinyerere filed the lawsuit against the Ministry of Home Affair and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) after she was assaulted by armed riot police officers with booted feet and truncheons while sitting near the court entrance at the Harare Magistrates Court in August 2016.
According to Gogo Chinyerere’s lawyers Kudzayi Kadzere and David Hofisi of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, she suffered injuries to her back and shoulder and has been unable to work as a tailor. ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Cain Mathema, who were represented by lawyers from the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office, denied the charges and alleged that Gogo Chinyerere fabricated the charges to tarnish the image of the police.
However, Justice Mathonsi would have none of it and ordered Matanga and Mathema to pay $13 500 to Gogo Chinyerere: $5 000 for damages for pain and suffering, $5 000 being damages for contumelia (indignity), $2 500 being special damages for loss of income and $1 000 as damages for past and future medical expenses.
More: Zimbabwe Lawyers For Human Rights
This is justice! This is what we want, not that every judgment favours the gvt all the time. So sad that the Commissioner and Minister deny the charges saying, the old woman was fabricating, yet its so evident of the brutality done by the police
Matanga and Matema were not yet in office in 2016