ZIMRIGHTS chairperson Passmore Nyakureba yesterday accused the police of causing the death of a 19-year-old Nyanga woman, Cecilia Mapako, after a commuter omnibus she was travelling in was detained at a police roadblock last week as officers demanded the driver to pay a $15 spot fine.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Nyakureba demanded that police should publicly apologise over the incident.
“What makes the matter worse is that neither the government nor the police department has publicly apologised to her family and indeed the people of Zimbabwe for causing the death of such a young person,” Nyakureba said.
“They do not care at all about our health or loss of life. These are the same people who are airlifted to hospitals overseas for attention at the expense of taxpayers’ money and whose deaths are made national events. As a people, we are certainly in a worse condition today than we were 40 years ago.
“We cannot afford ambulances to go to hospitals and when we use public transport one is guaranteed of losing at least two hours through police roadblocks for a distance of 100km with an average of 10 roadblocks and a stoppage time of a minimum of 15 minutes,” he said.
Zimbabwe Activists Alliance (ZAA) leader Lynette Mudehwe said they will soon take to the streets to demonstrate against police’s conduct. She also expressed concern over rising police brutality in the country.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“As ZAA we condemn in the strongest terms what happened in Nyanga. We will be taking to the streets countrywide to express our disgust and anger towards this State-sponsored cruelty on citizens. We urge all Zimbabweans to express themselves peacefully and declare accountability,” she said.
