Cop, 2 vendors face extortion charges 

Court Correspondent

A police officer and two vendors from Harare appeared in court yesterday for allegedly extorting money from vendors operating in the Magaba area of Mbare.

Chakupa Chamunorwa (26), Tawanda Chibanda (40) and the police officer, Innocent Chiza (40), appeared before provincial magistrate Dennis Mangosi charged with extortion wherein they demanded money from vendors.

They were not asked not to plead and were granted $50 000 bail each.

They were ordered not to interfere with witnesses and to continue staying at their given addresses until the matter is finalised.

Further, the accused persons are expected to report to the police once every Friday.

Prosecuting, Mr Zebediah Bofu alleged that Chamunorwa and Chibanda, who are vendors operating in the Magaba area, and Chiza, a police officer stationed at Harare Professional Updating Centre, hatched a plan to extort vendors who operate in Magaba.

The alleged extortion occurred during the period between December last year and January this year, when Chiza was still attached to the Police Reaction Group.

The two vendors would collect money between ranging between US$1 and US$2 per table, per day, as a protection fees so that vendors would not be arrested by police for illegal vending.

However, on Monday, police received information from an informant about the alleged extortion that was being perpetrated by Chamunorwa and Chibanda.

Other vendors interviewed by police confirmed that indeed they were paying money to the two on a daily basis.

When they were arrested, Chibanda implicated Chiza, as the one who would collect the money from him on behalf of members of the Police Reaction Group.

This subsequently led to Chiza’s arrest and investigations are still underway to establish the total amount extorted.