2 cops up for extorting kombis

Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent

TWO police officers from Harare yesterday appeared in court after being arrested for mounting roadblocks to extort money from kombi drivers.

Kelvin Nyabanga and Learnmore Mutaurwa were facing extortion charges when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Donald Ndirowei.

It is the State’s case that on Sunday, police officers stationed at ZRP Mabvuku, who when ordered conduct traffic blitzes and man roadblocks along Chiremba Road, had formed an unholy alliance with Nyabanga to extort money from kombi drivers on the City-Epworth route.

The scheme allowed kombis on that route to pass through the roadblock without being stopped after payment of bribes of US$5 a day or US$30 a week per vehicle.

The court heard that Nyabanga was strategically placed at Chance Shopping Centre in Hatfield to collect the cash from drivers between 7am and 10am.

After collecting the bribes, Nyabanga would list the qualifying kombis and send the list to the police officers at the roadblock who would let the bribe payers pass, but would arrest those who had not paid and impound their kombis.

But the rogue police officers ran up against an honest citizen who owns two kombis and uses the City-Epworth route.

He was told about the bribe scheme and approached Nyabanga and was told to pay US$30 per vehicle per week to avoid arrest and impounding of his vehicles by the police.

He felt this was wrong, and so he made a report to higher police authority.

On Tuesday, a trap was set up, resulting in the arrest and recovery of the trap money from Nyabanga who then implicated Mutaurwa through WhatsApp communications between the two.