A BULAWAYO vendor allegedly head-batted police officer who wanted to arrest him at the Bulawayo city centre market place recently.
BY SILAS NKALA
This was after the man shouted obscenities at the police officer who was on civilian clothing when he was buying vegetables.
Sabelo Khumala (29) of Emakhandeni pleaded not guilty to the charge of resisting or assaulting a peace officer when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Adeline Chikweshe.
He was remanded to July 3 for continuation of trial.
Prosecutor Caroline Matanga called the police officer Noel Matika based at Donnington Police station but residing in Hillside to testify in the case.
Matika told the court that he was with his friends driving a car when they stopped at the vegetable market place in the city to buy vegetables.
He said Khumalo approached them and started shouting obscenities at him accusing him of not buying onions from him.
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He said when he tried to advised him to stop insults, Khumalo became violent and they had to use minimum force to arrest and take him to the Bulawayo Central Police station.
“While at the Charge office and I was explaining to the officer in charge about the case, he stood up and told me in front of the officer in charge that he can assault me and suddenly head batted me in front of the officer in charge,” he said.
The court heard that on May 28, 2015 at 6:30pm Matika was at a market place in the city with friends when they wanted to buy vegetables from vendors.
Khumalo was one of the vendors. Khumalo allegedly approached him and started shouting accusing him for not buying onions from him.
Matika later identified himself as a police officer and arrested Khumalo for his violent conduct.
It is the state case that during the arrest when Matika was handcuffing him, Khumalo elbowed him. Matika and colleagues later took Khumalo to Bulawayo Central Police Station to file a report.
Khumalo allegedly went on to head bat Matika on the forehead while they were at the police charge office. This led to his arrest.
