THREE traffic cops who last year severely battered a haulage truck driver on the head using handcuffs, have finally been summoned to appear in court to face assault charges, a year since the report was first made. Albert Ncube Own Correspondent
Thomas Nemashakwe, Show Magaisa and Thembiwe Makore will appear in court on March 3 for allegedly assaulting a truck driver, Lloyd Musonza, on January 31 last year at a police roadblock in West Nicholson.
The three, however, arrested Musonza and charged him with resisting arrest or assaulting police officers.
Through his lawyer Byron Sengweni of Mcijo, Dube and Partners, Musonza denied the charges, arguing it was instead the police who assaulted him and had brought up the charges as a cover-up.
He was acquitted by Gwanda magistrate Sheila Nazombe.
Sengweni lamented the slow pace in which the police officer’s case was being investigated, leading to the magistrate granting an order to have the assault allegations investigated.
Allegations against the three traffic cops are that on January 31 2014 they mounted a speed trap in West Nicholson, where they apprehended Musonza’s cousin Maximum, for speeding.
They stopped him and asked him to pay a fine. Lloyd then disembarked from the haulage truck and relieved himself nearby.
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Nemashakwe told him he was under arrest for urinating in public and asked him to pay another spot fine.
Lloyd refused, arguing they were in a bushy area that could not be deemed a public place. An argument ensued and he started taking a video of the proceedings using his mobile phone.
The three cops then tried to retrieve the phone and started assaulted Lloyd on the head using handcuffs and he bled profusely.
The Musonza cousins then took two police caps, a deployment register and a fine deposit schedule so that it could be used to identify the police officers as they intended to make a report at Beitbridge Police Station.
The cousins were arrested by the same traffic cops at a roadblock at Makhado, after they had overtaken them on the highway.
A video taken during the mêlée shows police ordering Lloyd to surrender his cellphone, telling him he had no right to take pictures of them. Lloyd also took pictures of himself bleeding profusely moments after the brutal attack.
