Zim court punishes ZRP for homophobia and hysterical conduct

24 year-old Tinashe Maumbe was arrested together with his friends
Reward Majoni and Tinashe Majoni by ZRP officers on 16 January 2021
while walking past Matapi Police Station in Harare’s Mbare
high-density suburb, when the law enforcement agents manning the
entrance to the police station enquired where the trio was going. The
ZRP officers accused Maumbe and his friends of being homosexuals and
told them that homosexuality is not permitted in Zimbabwe.

The police officers subsequently detained Maumbe and his friends
without pressing any charges against them and jeered at them. The trio
was only released after lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
(ZLHR) intervened.

Maumbe then enlisted the services of Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of ZLHR and
sued ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga, Home Affairs and
Cultural Heritage Minister Hon. Kazembe Kazembe and a police officer
only identified as Mabika by filing summons in April 2021 at Harare
Civil Magistrates Courts demanding payment amounting to ZWL900 000 as
damages for unlawful arrest, detention, humiliation and embarrassment.

On 4 November 2022 and after presiding over the trial of Hon. Kazembe,
Matanga and Mabika, Harare Magistrate Ayanda Dhlamini granted judgment
in favour of Maumbe and ordered Matanga, Kazembe and Mabika to pay him
ZWL800 000 as compensation for violation of his rights after ruling
that ZRP officers had “hysterically” arrested the 24 year-old Mbare
resident based on their personal opinion of members of the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse, queer and questioning people.

Out of the ZWL800 000, ZWL$400 000 is for damages for unlawful arrest
and detention while ZWL$400 000 is compensation for inhuman and
degrading treatment.
Magistrate Dhlamini further ruled that the police officers, who
arrested Maumbe, were not even aware of the COVID-19 provisions, which
they purported to have cited upon apprehending him.

The Magistrate concluded that Maumbe’s arrest and detention was
unlawful and that the police officers had jeered at him and insulted
him for allegedly being a homosexual and by so doing, violated his
right to human dignity guaranteed in terms of provisions of section 51
of the Constitution.