‘Cop’ remanded for extortion

Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
A GWANDA Neighbourhood Watch Committee (NWC) member yesterday appeared in court facing extortion charges after he allegedly demanded a R600 bribe from a South African-based teacher “to save her from imprisonment.”

Dumisani Sibanda, 33, deployed at ZRP Gwanda Urban Police Station pleaded not guilty to extortion charges when he appeared before magistrate Sheila Nazombe.

Sibanda, of Phakama suburb, was remanded out of custody to July 30 for trial.

For the State, Maxwell Machokoto said on July 13 this year at around 8AM, Nontokozo Dube, 33, a Zimbabwean employed as a teacher in Johannesburg, South Africa went to Gwanda Registry Offices to obtain an external birth certificate for her son, Senzakuhle Tshuma, whom she delivered in the neighbouring country on May 8, 2011.

When she arrived at the Registry Offices, it was discovered that Dube once applied for the same birth certificate at Filabusi Registry Offices.

She was then referred to Gwanda Police Station to pay a fine of $20 or R240 for supplying false information to the Registrar General.

“On the complainant’s arrival at the ZRP Gwanda Charge Office, the accused and his co-accused Sergeant Mukudzei Moyo who is still at large exerted illegitimate pressure on the complainant by telling her that the offence of supplying false information to the Registrar General which she committed was a serious one. The accused person and his co-accused told the complainant that if she didn’t pay them R600, she would be imprisoned for a period of not less than eight years,” Machokoto said.

Further allegations are that Sibanda and Moyo took Dube’s finger prints.

“Due to fear of imprisonment, complainant gave accused and his co-accused R600 which they shared between themselves and made complainant to pay a fine of R100,” the court heard.

When Dube went back to Gwanda Registry Offices on July 14, it was realised that she had paid R100 instead of R240 or $20.

She was questioned about the anomaly and revealed that Sibanda and Moyo had threatened her with imprisonment until she gave them R600.