The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is investigating the extra-judicial rendition of a truck driver to Zambia after he was abducted in Harare on 28 October 2023.
It is alleged that Tasara Hwata (47), was abducted and tortured with the full participation of his employers – before being smuggled to Zambia where he is being held in pre-trial detention.
According to ZimLive, Hwata’s problems started after a consignment of fertilizer which he drove from South Africa and delivered in Lusaka, the Zambian capital, was reported as missing.
His wife Nyarai Nyika, of Tugwete Village in Seke, has pleaded with Zimbabwean authorities to bring him home.
She told police her husband is employed by Profburg Private Limited, a company based in Wokington in Harare.
Nyika said her husband was assigned to ferry 600 x 50kg bags of fertilizer from South Africa to Zambia between October 15 and October 25, 2023.
The consignment was to be delivered to Omnia Fertilizer Company in Lusaka and this was his first delivery in Zambia.
She alleged that on 24 October, on approach to Lusaka after crossing into Zambia at Chirundu, her husband received a call from someone claiming to be from Omnia Fertilizer Company, who asked for his location.
Hwata allegedly pulled into Inter Africa Truck Stop in the Makeni area of Lusaka at 9 AM.
The same man who had called him earlier called again advising him to proceed to Omnia, also stating that they had created space for him to offload his cargo.
Hwata drove towards Omnia but somewhere along the way, he is alleged to have seen an individual dressed in an Omnia Fertilizer T-shirt flagging him to stop.
The unidentified man jumped into the truck and told Hwata that there was no longer space at Omnia Fertilizer and redirected him to a location on Great North Road.
Upon reaching the location, about 30 people began offloading the truck, while the man in the Omnia Fertilizer T-Shirt asked Hwata to hand over the paperwork for them to sign an acknowledgement of delivery and stamp the papers.
It is further alleged that the location where the delivery was made had no offices and the man wearing the Omnia T-shirt drove away and returned after about an hour with the papers signed and stamped.
Hwata took pictures of the papers and sent them to their Johannesburg office to confirm delivery.
Hwata was then instructed by his company’s Johannesburg office to drive to Goromonzi in Zimbabwe and pick up a load which would be delivered in South Africa.
He picked up the load in Goromonzi and on 28 October he drove to his employer’s Harare office to collect toll fees for his trip.
Nyarai claimed that Hwata was met by Moussa Mounchikpou, who is the managing director of the company and Brian Chande, the head driver.
They took him to a room where there were three other people – two men and a woman.
Chande allegedly introduced the three as police officers and then left the room.
Hwata was interrogated about where he delivered his load and told that the stamp on his delivery papers was fake.
He narrated his story but the alleged police officers refused to believe him.
They allegedly handcuffed Hwata and started assaulting him whilst he was suspended in the air between two tables.
Hwata was then bundled into a car with the three “police officers” while Chande allegedly went to his truck and retrieved his passport and mobile phone. Chande joined them in the car.
He was driven to Chirundu, arriving at around 1 AM when the border was closed.
At the border, they removed Hwata’s handcuffs and handed him over to four men driving an Isuzu twin cab.
Among the four men was Lloyd Chisumba, whom Hwata recognised as a Zambian national and agent who clears trucks in Zambia.
The men did not subject Hwata to immigration formalities at the closed border post but drove him to Mosque Police Station in Lusaka and booked in at around 4 AM.
After two days detained, Chande and Chisumba turned up and demanded to be shown where Hwata had made the delivery.
They drove to the location and he was returned to the police station.
Hwata’s wife said she only discovered her husband was being held in Zambia after confronting his employers.
She told the police that her husband was kept at the station for another three weeks before he was moved to Kanyama Police Station using Chisumba’s vehicle.
After 35 days, Hwata was taken to Lusaka Central Prison where he stayed until he was granted bail on 29 December 2023.
He remains in Zambia awaiting trial.
More: Pindula News
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