Home Affairs Minister, ZRP Boss Face Jail

Home Affairs minister Cain Mathema and commissioner-general of police Godwin Matanga will each face 90 days’ imprisonment if they fail to comply with a High Court order compelling them to compensate a victim of wrongful arrest.

Mathema and Matanga were found in contempt of court by Justice Benjamin Chikowero and ordered to pay $18 075 with prescribed interest within 14 days or go to jail. Part of the order reads:

The respondents be and are hereby held to be in contempt of court…shall pay $18 075 together with interest at the prescribed rate from the date of summons to the date of full payment and cost of suit within 14 days of this order failing which they must each be committed to imprisonment for 90 days.

Activist Cynthia Manjoro filed the suit in 2011 claiming she suffered torture and other abuses by police officers. Manjoro was arrested together with 28 others, on charges of murdering police inspector Petros Mutedza in May 2011. She was arrested because her car was spotted at the murder scene. Despite telling the police that she was attending a church service at the material time and was not present at the scene, the police went on to detain her.

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