Online Reporter
Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
HARARE man , Shepard Mangoma, has been sentenced to an effective 54 months in prison after being convicted of impersonating a police detective and extorting US$200 from a grieving family under the pretense of investigating a mysterious death.
Shephard Mangoma (47) was found guilty after a full trial presided over by Harare provincial magistrate Mr Tapiwa Banda.
The magistrate noted that Mangoma exploited a grieving family’s vulnerability for personal gain, breaching public trust.
For impersonation, he received a 24-month sentence, wholly suspended.
For the extortion charge, he was sentenced to 60 months, with six months suspended on the condition of good behaviour.
This leaves him with 54 effective months behind bars.
Prosecutor Mr Takudzwa Mutyavaviri told the court that on October 16, 2024, the complainant lost his uncle, Darlington Tatenda Mapiki, who died under mysterious circumstances near Rugare Police Station.
The family was dissatisfied with the post-mortem carried out at Harare Group of Hospitals, which determined the cause of death as suicide.
Since they were convinced it was foul play, the family sought answers.
Mangoma, learning of the family’s plight, devised a plan to extort money by posing as a detective.
He claimed to be stationed at CID Homicide, Harare, and met the grieving family at Greenwood Park, corner 7th and Chinamano, and falsely stated he was the appointed investigating officer for the case.
To gain the family’s trust, Mangoma disparaged the initial investigation conducted at Rugare Police Post, accusing officers and the pathologist of manipulating the post-mortem findings in exchange for a US$700 bribe.
He told the family that their relative had been murdered by five individuals for ritual purposes, with two suspects allegedly already in custody and three others still at large.
Mangoma demanded US$500 as a “transport allowance” to enable him to travel to Gwanda to arrest one of the alleged suspects, a traditional healer supposedly involved in the ritual killing.
He warned the family that without this money, the remaining suspects would not be apprehended.
The complainant, 27-year-old Tichaona Mapira, agreed to meet Mangoma on December 18, 2024, to hand over the cash. However, Mapira reported the matter to the CID Anti-Corruption Unit, leading to a trap being set.
On the agreed date, detectives accompanied Mapira and his relatives to Rainbow Towers, where they met Mangoma.
Mapira handed over US$200 in trap money, which Mangoma accepted.
He was immediately arrested, and the marked money was recovered from the front right pocket of his black trousers
