A PLUMTREE magistrate has ordered the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu and a commuter omnibus driver to pay more than $4 000 to a Bulawayo resident who was shot on the foot by a police officer at a roadblock in Plumtree in 2014.
BY SILAS NKALA
Constance Tshuma, who was a passenger in a kombi, engaged the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZHLR) to claim compensation after her foot was seriously damaged when a police officer allegedly recklessly fired a shot towards the vehicle at a road block in Plumtree.
She sustained serious disfigurement on the foot as a result of the negligence.
On Tuesday, ZLHR reported that Plumtree magistrate Taurai Manuwere last week handed down a judgment in which he awarded damages amounting to $4 098 to Tshuma for the pain, suffering and disfigurement she suffered emanating from injuries sustained on October 23, 2014, when a police officer indiscriminately fired at the vehicle in which she was travelling from Plumtree to Bulawayo.
In summons filed at Plumtree Magistrates’ Court by ZHLR lawyers Lizwe Jamela and Shepherd Chamunorwa, Tshuma said she was caught up in the wars between police officers and kombi drivers when she was hit by a bullet after some law enforcement agents fired ostensibly to force the driver of a commuter omnibus she was travelling in to stop. Tshuma, who engaged the services of ZLHR in her bid for compensation and to make the police account for their negligence, was coming from Botswana in October 2014 when police officers operating in the Marula near Plumtree fired shots at the vehicle.
The police officers wanted to apprehend the driver, Mbonisi Mpofu, whom they alleged had tried to avoid a police roadblock.
The roadblock was supervised by a traffic officer identified as Assistant Inspector Christmas.
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Manuwere ordered Mpofu, the Officer in Charge of Plumtree Police Station, ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Mpofu to pay
$2 000 as damages for pain and suffering, $1 098 for hospital and medical expenses and $1 000 as damages for disfigurement to Tshuma.
The magistrate ruled that the police’s conduct was not reasonably justified and there were other avenues of arresting Mpofu such as requesting for reinforcement from Plumtree Police Station if, indeed, the kombi driver had turned his vehicle and drove back towards Plumtree.
“Through its anti-impunity litigation programme, ZLHR seeks to deter and discourage acts of human rights violations,” ZLHR said in its report.
