I was somewhat staggered to read on the internet this morning that a member of the air force and a policeman have been remanded on bails of US$100 and US150 – for the murder of a ‘street kid’!

Members of the army, air force and police in Zimbabwe are sworn to uphold peace and security in the country.

They are all trained personnel and that includes the use of firearms.

Yet these two individuals took the law into their own hands and shot a ‘street kid’ dead – and then they are released by the courts on low bail for the most heinous crime of all.

Couple that together with the report on the internet yesterday that ‘war veteran’ Joseph Chinotimba was ‘brandishing’ a pistol in a threatening manner when he went – with the police – to evict an old lady from a house which he claims to have bought.

The common denominator in these two stories? ZANU PF.

The police and the air force are used at will as extensions of Mugabe’s ZANU PF party – and he really doesn’t care how they act… just as long as his will is carried out and his orders executed.

Chinotimba is not a ‘war veteran’ – yet he has decided that he will assume the persona.

The security chiefs in Zimbabwe refuse to salute Prime Minister Tsvangirai because, they say, he has no chimurenga credentials – which is ZANU PF speak for the fact that he did not participate in the bloody bush war against the Rhodesian security forces in the 1970s.

Well, neither does Chintimba – and he is given carte blanche to do as he will.

A police officer is meant to be someone who the public can to turn to in a time of need - and yet “a senior policeman based in Harare has been arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a street kid over a cellphone in the early hours of Sunday.

The cop accused the victim of refusing to disclose the whereabouts of a friend suspected of stealing the officer’s mobile phone.

Assistant Commissioner Robert Tendero Masukusa, who was represented by Mr Anesu Vusani of Manase and Manase Legal Practitioners, was not asked to plead to murder charges when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi yesterday.

Masukusa - who is in the police transport department - was remanded in custody to September 22 and advised to apply for bail at the High Court.”

Since the initial report, Masukusa has been released on US$100 bail!

Whilst Chinotimba is allowed to do what he pleases...

“When zimGossip.com got to the house Chinotimba was brandishing a pistol threatening to effect instant justice if Muzanya did not remove her property, which is still within the yard.

“Kana kuchifa munhu, kunotofiwa nhasi (removing his gun from its belt). Pano panotofiwa chete,” he said.

Chinotimba then went on to give the pistol to one of his two uniformed security guards he had brought from Harare.

The guards, one of them armed with the pistol, are still at the property in question standing guard.”

The law in Zimbabwe is abused by all wings of ZANU PF – at a serious cost to the law-abiding population of Zimbabwe.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man