Impala speaks on hire documents

Herald Reporter
Impala Car Rental has clarified its inability to provide a Bulawayo man, Tawanda Muchehiwa with documents relating to the hire of one of its vehicles, saying they already surrendered them to the police.

Muchehiwa alleges he was abducted in one of the company’s cars, in a case which is under police investigation.

The case has seen the car rental company receive attacks from social media activists who are demanding the release information on who rented the car to the public, a request the company is presently unable to satisfy.

Impala say they are committed to helping law enforcement agents with all they may require in pursuit of the case, but Muchehiwa instituted two legal processes which ended up conflicting.

As a result, the company is now unable to produce documents which are being aggressively pursued by the Bulawayo student and his relatives. Impala lawyer Jivas Mudimu, of Mudimu Law revealed at a Press conference in Harare yesterday.

“What happened is, Muchehiwa pursued two legal remedies to his issue, one which was through reporting a criminal case and the other which was a civil case in which he sought to compel the court to grant an order for us to release the documents surrounding the vehicle. The criminal case process resulted in CID Law and Order coming to collect the document, which they said, would help in their investigation. However, after we had surrendered the papers to CID Law and Order, The Sheriff came with the court order asking for the same papers which we had already surrendered to the police,” said Mudimu.

There have been claims by some players, especially online news sites, accusing the company of “trying to conceal a crime”.

The company says it acted in accordance with the notice of seizure which was presented by the police, and even tried to get the papers back after a request by The Sheriff.

“We wrote a letter to the police, requesting the papers to be given and we were advised that those papers are being used for investigation. Our hands are now tied,” said Mudimu.