Who will police the police?
This was the question many people were left asking after four police officers were dragged before the courts of law for allegedly stealing hard cash amounting to US$57 000 and two kgs of gold.
The incident reportedly took place in the early hours of last Saturday morning at Selous roundabout while the driver of the car which was involved in a road accident was lying unconscious in his car.
It is reported that Nobizita Gatawa, who had been driving a Toyota Max, was involved in a road traffic accident near the Selous roundabout, along the Harare-Bulawayo highway.
The state media reported that Gatawa had hard cash amounting to US$80 000 in his car and 2.16kgs of pure gold and was unconscious when the four police officers attended the accident scene.
The accused quartet has been identified as Rudo Tafa, Daniel Mujabuki, Musekiwa Karimanzira from ZRP Saruwe and Thomson Brian Chinyani from ZRP Norton Traffic.
And, appearing before Norton magistrate Christine Nyandoro on Tuesday, the four police officers were released on US$150 bail each.
Prosecuting, Thomas Chanakira told the court that on Saturday, at around 4am, Tafa, Mujabuki and Karimanzira were on a morning raid deployment using a ZRP Mahindra vehicle.
They then parked their car at the Selous roundabout, along the Harare-Bulawayo highway.
Chanakira said the three officers were then informed by a motorist, who was coming from Chegutu, that an accident had occurred, just before the roundabout.
Subsequently, three went back to their police station and picked up Chinyani, who is deployed at ZRP Norton Traffic base at ZRP Saruwe, and went to the traffic accident scene.
While at the accident scene, the four cops reportedly stole US$57 000 and 2kgs of gold.
When Gatawa’s father came to see his son who had been involved in the accident, the four officers then handed over US$22 500 to him.
That was when the offence was discovered, the court heard.
