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Sichili Residents Complain Of
Police Brutality
By Madube Pasi Siyauya
RESIDENTS of Mulobezi and Sichili in Southern Province have complained of
escalating police brutality and have asked the Legal Resources Foundation
(LRF) to urgently intervene.
The residents said Livingstone based LRF officers should quickly visit
Mulobezi and Sichili Police posts because police there, had developed a
habit of torturing and brutalising suspects.
Charles Mwayanguba, a local clinical officer, told LRF Paralegal Ernest
Mukelabai that police had on a number of occasions taken the law in their
own hands by beating up people for no apparent reason at all.
Mukelabai told the LRF News that there was in fact a report about a man who
allegedly died in police custody last month, although his office had not yet
received an official complaint on the matter.
Mwayanguba also complained that police were failing to give him back his
bicycle they confiscated from his son a year ago alleging that it had some
defects.
Mwayanguba wondered why the named officer who confiscated the bicycle
decided to keep it for one year when the matter could have easily been
solved.
The officer only surrendered the bicycle after a senior police officer from
Sesheke intervened and directed him to do so upon lodging a complaint.
Mwayanguba said although the bicycle was finally released, it was in a bad
shape, prompting him to reject it. It was thereafter never returned.
Mwayanguba had since asked the LRF to help him get a replacement from the
police.
Mukelabai said LRF would assist Mwayanguba have his bicycle replaced.
Last month, a clinical officer at Sichili clinic complained about the
alleged failure by Sichili police post officers to arrest a white lodge
owner who had threatened to kill him.
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