Incident
in Karoi
From: "Pat Townsend"
Dear concerned Zimbabweans and any other interested
parties...
As you are all aware, Karoi has been severely hit since
February this year with
the ongoing land issue on farms. Karoi has
featured a number of times on the
International news and has a lot of
coverage. The rest of the world think that
things have calmed down since
the elections have come and gone, but it is not
the case, in fact things
are probably worse than ever right now. There are
rumours going around about
exactly what happened on the morning of the
25th July, (the day of the
Karoi shutdown) between myself and 4 policemen
and Police Superintendent
Mabunda in the courtyard of Northern Toyota, Karoi.
I am sending this
email firstly to set the record straight and secondly to
make you all aware
of what sort of attitude the local police have, in the
hope that something
is done about it without delay.
I must make it quite clear that I was not
touched (besides one minor nudge)
in any way and I believe that I was what
one might term "exhibit A" - in
the wrong place, at the wrong time, and
simply made a TOTAL spectacle of.
Mabunda saw an opportunity to make a
statement (frightening!) and that he
did... I must add though, that I have
never been so shocked and
flabbergasted at anyone's behaviour, ever. It took
me the rest of the day
to get over the ugly scene and in fact I am still
suffering as are my two
children. It is hard to believe that the people we
should be looking up
to/turning to in this time of political unrest are
actually the ones that
are going out of their way to cause problems and
inflate Zimbabwe's current crisis.
ZIMBABWE CITIZENS, realize that it is
not just the farmers that have
problems, it is every one of us. I am not a
farmers wife but a business
woman (born & bred here), a wife to a very
committed Zimbabwean (also born
and bred here as were his parents and
grandparents before him) and mother
to two teenage daughters.
It could
be you next. Without the farmers we might as well all pack up
and get out.
Let us back the farmers 100% of the way. If it is a shutdown
that is called
for next week then so be it. The time has come. Feel free
to pass this
email message on to anyone, anywhere. Enough is enough.
Remember, we all
have rights.
Background on Supt. Mabunda:-
Superintendent Mabunda is
the district Police Officer and in charge of the
following police stations:-
Karoi; Magunje; Kariba; Chirundu; Makuti, Tengwe
amongst other satellite
stations. He has immense power. He was posted to
Karoi for two reasons (in
his own words):-
1. To ensure a ZANU PF victory in elections.
2. He
is the land commissioner for ZANU PF and here to distribute
land accordingly...
WHEN WILL THE 'POWERS THAT BE' GET INVOLVED AND
HELP US REGAIN LAW AND ORDER IN ZIMBABWE? How many more people must be
abused, beaten, or killed
before action is taken? An hour after my (minor
in comparison) incident,
a Karoi farmer Dave Brand was seriously beaten up
by 40 war veterans on his
farm in Karoi and left
(perhaps) for dead...
After a spell in hospital he is recovering.
Please find below a copy of
my statement made on the 25th July to Assistant
Commissioner Pritchard,
Chinhoyi; the CFU and a number of other local
organizations:-
"At
approximately 8.00am this morning, I went to Northern Toyota to
purchase
shock absorbers and came across the Manager locking up for the day
due to
the shut down that commenced today.
Four policemen (in uniform)
approached the manager and demanded to know why he
was closing
his business. He responded by informing them that he was
under instruction
from his Directors to close for the day. They did not
seem to want to accept
this and removed the padlock from his hands and
surrounded him in a
threatening manner. They demanded to go inside and use
the telephone to
contact his Directors to open up the building. He refused.
Due to the
threatening mood in which they were in I asked them to leave
the Manager
alone and said that they should go back to the Police station
and use their
own phone, that it was not
the managers' fault.
The one policeman
turned to me and stated that " it is against the law to
close any businesses
in Karoi", I replied " It is due to the lack of Law
and Order that this
shut down was actually taking place". All four
policemen turned towards me
and started flinging questions at me, wanting
to know who I was and what
connection I had with the manager. I told them I
was a member of the public
and asked them not to pick on an elderly citizen
like that. In the
heat
of the moment I added that "they might as well throw their uniforms
away
for all the good the police are doing at the moment"
This
agitated them and all four of them moved in closer, becoming more
threatening
and I started reversing. They threatened to arrest me and I
asked them "for
what reason? I have done nothing wrong" . They said "For
your
mouth".
I told them that I was not willing to go to the Police Station
with them as
I had done nothing wrong. The one Policeman nudged me with his
arm and I
told him not to touch me or I would have him up for assault and he
backed
off. Mr K**** arrived (PLEASE NOTE THIS PERSON DOES NOT WANT TO BE
NAMED)
and tried to help diffuse the situation. The next minute I heard
somebody
say "The Boss has arrived" and I thought to myself "Thank
goodness,
someone with a higher rank is here to sort things out". I did not
recognise
the man who was in civilian clothing. He seemed to listen for
perhaps one
minute to the conversation,
obviously unaware of what had
taken place but saw it as an opportunity to
belittle a white woman in public,
as by now the paraffin queue had gathered
around and were listening. For the
record, after giving a description of
"The Boss", I discovered that it must
have been Supt. Mabunda. [THIS HAS
BEEN CONFIRMED BY MR NOEL (referred to
as the Manager or elderly gentleman
in my statement), IN HIS AFFIDAVID, WHO
HAD BEEN INTRODUCED TO SPT. MABUNDA
PREVIOUSLY.]
Mabunda pointed his
index finger 1mm away from my nose and shouted, at the
top of his voice
"FUCK YOU!" I then turned to him and said "I beg your
pardon?" because I
thought he was perhaps accusing me of having said that
to one of his
policeman. He repeated it even louder, with his finger still
pointing at my
nose, whilst looking around at the crowd. I asked him not
to point his
finger at me and not to use that language. He continued to
shout, with his
next words being "BULLSHIT, YOU ASSHOLES, FUCK YOU - YOU
WANT A WAR, WE WILL
GIVE YOU A WAR. I HAVE ARMED TROOPS STANDING BY."
Then Supt. Mabunda just
seemed to disappear into the crowd & some of the
crowd clapped. The 4
Policeman did not move in all this time. After the
Supt. left the one
Policeman took out his
notebook and wanted my details, which I started to
give him, but at the
same time, I was constantly being verbally abused by two
of the other
Policeman. The Policeman behind me shouted at me and said "Don't
worry, I
will never be asking you for a job". (????) The one to my left
pointed his
finger at me and said loudly "If this was the old days, I would
slap you".
I told him not to point his finger at me as this was assault and
not to
talk to me like that. I tried to explain that I only said what I
said to try and help out the elderly man.
When they told me that I had
to go to the Police Station to make a
statement, I said that I would happily
go down in my own time and in my own
vehicle. I then apologised to them for
upsetting them with my comments. I
asked the officer if I could have their
names and numbers and they flatly
refused. They were not wearing any
numbers."
Please understand that so much of the verbal attack has
actually been left out as one cannot remember everything... it seemed to go
on forever. When I am angry I cry (one of my weaknesses!), and so the tears
were running down my face throughout the confrontation, but I did not lose
my temper in any way or shout or swear at them at any given time. Those of
you who know me say that Mabunda is a brave man to take me on!! I did stand
my ground however and at one point I held my wrists together and told the
4 policemen (before Mabunda arrived) to "arrest me now if you think that
I have done something wrong..." - They did not.
Make up you own
minds - I will be taking the matter further.
Pat
Townsend