THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) last week transferred 217 officers from
Beitbridge as two more policemen appeared in court on allegations of facilitating
vehicles smuggling through undesignated points in which Government may have lost
billions of dollars in unpaid duty.
Those transferred, including senior members of the force, are expected to report to
their new stations by Tuesday June 27, 2023.
These include 11 officers from Beitbridge CID and some heads of departments
within Beitbridge Police Station.
The transfers were triggered by what is believed to be a long-standing car smuggling
racket involving police officers and other security agents deployed along the border
with South Africa.
Almost weekly, several cars of SA origin, and at times in batches of five a day, are
brought in through several illegal points along the border, where donkey drawn carts,
plastics, sandbags, mesh wire is used to drive vehicles across the river bed.
Some types of vehicles have their tyres deflated so that they can navigate their way
across the tricky sand.
But after this has been done, and with assistance of SA police officers and members
of the country's defence forces, SANDF, deployed along the border, the smugglers
drive their car across.
Instead of paying duty, they pay the facilitator cops and soldiers.
But this deal was exposed on June 5 this year when one such car, a Toyota Fortuner
registration JCL586MP was intercepted by Nothani Nyoni, Emmanuel Gumede,
Physical Ncube and two other police officers, one female, heavily pregnant.
On Wednesday, Gumede and Ncube were denied bail by Beitbridge resident
magistrate, Takudzwa Gwazemba, who said the number of arrests in connection
with the case were increasing.
Prosecutor Fezile Mpofu had opposed bail citing the increasing number of similar
cases.
To date at least six Beitbridge policemen have appeared before the courts in related
cases.
The latest mass transfers at Beitbridge, which is reportedly “routine”, falls short of
another one in 2016 when the entire station and support staff were transferred.
The station then failed to arrest and secure a conviction even of a single person after
a demonstration against Statutory Instrument 164 of 2016 that sparked nationwide
violent protests.
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