Zimbabwe Republic Police officers last wee left a Harare man with a fractured hand when they assaulted him for defying the regulations of the 21-day national lockdown.
The 27-year-old Tendai Mtombeni who resides in Warren Park, Harare was left unconscious on Friday night and only regained consciousness on Saturday after being admitted to a local private medical facility with the help of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights.
Mtombeni, a car washer, told NewsDay on Sunday that he was going to Warren Park shops to get change for his customer when he met more than 50 police officers in a truck who assaulted him.
He alleges that a female officer started assaulting him whilst he was explaining where he was going and her colleagues disembarked from the truck and joined in the assault. He narrated:
They took my Nokia mobile phone and the money and they went away with it. I sustained injuries on my head, hand and all over my body. They left me unconscious and I don’t know how I got home.
ZADHR board secretary Norman Matara claims that a CT scan on Mtombeni revealed that he had fractured his left hand.
Meanwhile, police national spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi says that no report has been made over the matter.
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Commissioner, how can a victim report his case to a perpetrator? We beg you to look into such situations as police for the public has nowhere else to go when such things happen. You are our police and our protector from harm. I’m sure you are aware of your men’s brutality when it comes to enforcement of the law. They are too heavy handed and we beg you to stop it.
“I heard nothing and saw nothing”, thus the usual response from Paul Nyathi the so-called police spokesperson.