Zimbabwean hawkers complain of police harassment

A 23-year-old Zimbabwean man, who is a hawker in the Elim area, is not in the least pleased with the manner in which a police officer allegedly continues to abuse him and other hawkers of Zimbabwean origin.

In the latest incident, which happened on Sunday morning, Tapiwa Mahwerera was walking in the vicinity of Rivoni when a police van stopped near him. He maintains that he was carrying bucket kettles, kettle elements, a same-time photo machine and a camera.

“He came to me and said that he wanted to search me for any counterfeit digital discs, but he found none on me. Still he was adamant that I climb into the van,” he said. “But I knew that it was his habit to arrest and detain me and other hawkers, only to release us in the evening or the following morning, so I ran away.”

The police officer shouted “vimba”, and the people who were around started chasing Tapiwa. He outran them, leaving all his items behind near the van. “I looked back from a distance and saw the policeman loading my stuff into the back of the van.”

Tapiwa then reported the police officer to the office of the station commander late on Sunday and the station commander scheduled a meeting for Monday. “I went there with my older brother, Freddy Chimiso, so that, if anything happened, he would have to be a witness,” he said. “We were barred from seeing the station commander by a senior officer, who promised to mediate between me and the police officer who abuses me. However, when he was called to the office, he denied ever abusing me or taking my stuff, and I felt so angry because he was lying. My brother told him that what he was doing was totally wrong, but he grabbed him by the shirt and his shirt got torn.”

The police officer allegedly said that the police station belonged to him and that he had the power to do whatever he wished with any suspects or people who entered the police station. Chimiso said that he confronted the officer, saying that the police station should be a place where he could seek safety and protection.

“That was when he grabbed me by the shirt and shook me many times, but when I resisted, he hit me on the chest with a fist. The senior officer quickly rose and came to stand between us, so as to stop the fight.”

However, the police officer allegedly fumed that he would finally kill one of the men, and the senior officer heard that. “He hysterically pushed his hand inside my pocket, took out my cell phone and threw it along the corridor,” he said. “The senior officer went to pick up the phone pieces and handed them to me.”

At the end of the day, the two brothers, who felt that they were the most vulnerable victims, walked out of the police station, feeling hurt and defeated.

The provincial spokesperson for the SAPS, Lt-Col Moatshe Ngoepe, condemned any behaviour where police officers regard themselves as being above the law. “The victims must report the matter to the station commander or the Independent Police Investigations’ Provincial Coordinators, who will register their case and investigate it,” he said.

Date:24 May 2018

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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