Chronicle Editor
Constable Wonder Hokoyo, who was fatally macheted at a mine in Battlefields near Kadoma on Saturday was expected to be buried in Triangle, Masvingo, yesterday.
He becomes the latest casualty on a growing list of people to be hacked to death or injured with that weapon by artisanal miners countrywide in recent months. He also becomes probably the first police officer to suffer that fate at the hands of the outlaws.
Reports say that on Friday, Cst Hokoyo was deployed to Good Hope Mine with three other police officers to deal with an invasion by artisanal miners. On Saturday, at around 2pm, the suspected killers together with many others who are still at large, raided the mine armed with machetes, catapults and axes and forcibly took control of the mine shafts, dispersing the company’s workers who were extracting gold ore.
The deployed police officers fired warning shots to disperse the illegal miners, but they did not leave. Instead, they advanced towards the police, disarmed and assaulted them.
Cst Hokoyo and Cst Kamhuka were hit on the backs of their heads with logs, before they were disarmed. Their assailants then fatally chopped Cst Hokoyo and inflicted serious injuries on Cst Kamhuka who, fortunately, managed to escape.
The machete has, indeed, become the weapon of choice in violence that is common at informal gold mining sites in various parts of the country.
Statistics from police show that in Kadoma, Mashonaland West Province, where Cst Hokoyo was lynched, 224 machete-related crimes were recorded from January to November this year. He and Cst Kamhuka, are two known additional victims to that list. Chegutu District in the same province recorded an increase in machete-related crimes from 108 cases last year to 125 cases this year. Mining areas and nearby beer outlets top the list of the most affected areas, with assaults, robberies, attempted murder and murder cases dominating the list.
Early November last year, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) claimed that “105 people were killed” in Kadoma between August to October, while “hundreds of others were severely injured” in the machete attacks. We have to state that we could, at the time of writing, not verify this very high number of casualties as reported by the NGO but the fact is that cases of machete attacks are rising.
We condemn Cst Hokoyo’s brutal murder and call on police to track down his assailants. The criminals who have maimed and murdered many others in recent months must be accounted for so that order is restored in mining zones. Once order is restored, production of the yellow metal should increase. When that happens the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would receive more gold to help in boosting output to the targeted 40 tonnes to 100 tonnes per year.
It is profoundly troubling that months after generally hacking each other in gold wars in Filabusi, Esigodini, Nkayi, Shurugwi, Kadoma, Kwekwe and Mazowe artisanal gold miners, on the evidence of Saturday, now have the audacity to take on law enforcement agents with that crude weapon. This is highly condemnable and we demand that they be disarmed.
Police deserve the utmost respect especially when they are discharging their official law enforcement duties. We expect even the informal miners to respect them, not to wilfully target them with logs and machetes. When violence takes this form, we and the nation at large get very worried and afraid at the same time. The people would start asking themselves what all that violence could lead to.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission shared our outrage when it condemned the targeting of Cst Hokoyo on Tuesday, saying the act was “callous and unwarranted”, adding that police officers on duty or in their spare time have a right to life, which is God-given and constitutionally guaranteed.
“This fundamental right is sacrosanct and should be respected and protected by all and sundry in a free and democratic society, which Zimbabwe is,” it said.
“The law, of course, must take its full course in the barbaric instances of this nature. The commission condemns all similar past and present barbaric and intentional murders with the contempt they deserve and exhort law enforcement agencies to ensure the law takes its full course in all such instances.”
Citizens expect the Government to, soon in the New Year, come up with a law that criminalises possession of machetes in gold-rich areas. Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi made this commitment in November. Cst Hokoyo’s murder makes this more urgent.
Online Reporter