adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
BARELY a week after the arrest of a senior prosecutor stationed at Rusape Magistrates’ Court, a prison officer who operates from the same court has been arrested on similar allegations of accepting a bribe from a rape suspect.
Clara Dembaremba, who is employed by the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services, was arrested on Monday on allegations of receiving $450 from relatives of Aleck Maganha to facilitate a favourable outcome. She is facing charges of criminal abuse of public office. The accused was arrested on Monday after a trap by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives. Officer-in-charge CID Rusape, Detective Inspector Simon Nyamupfukudza, confirmed Dembaremba’s arrest.
He said she was expected to appear in court yesterday. Dembaremba has engaged the services of Mr Taurai Khupe of Khupe Law Chambers. Mr Khupe said his client was denying the charges. Det Insp Nyamupfukudza said Dembaremba got to know Maganha during his remand stay at Rusape Remand Prison.
Muganha was remanded in custody on rape charges allegedly committed in Honde Valley.
Dembaremba allegedly approached him saying she was able to facilitate his acquittal if he agrees to pay $550. She allegedly told him that she was acting on behalf of court officials handling the matter. However, luck eluded the ZPCS official when the rape suspect was convicted on March 13, 2015 by Rusape regional magistrate Mr Livingstone Chipadza and jailed for 15 years. Mr Chipadza suspended five years on the usual conditions.
“She was given the telephone number of Teddy Mutambi, who was the rape suspect’s employer in Honde Valley. On February 20, 2015, Dembaremba called Matambo saying if paid $550, she could influence an acquittal.
“Matambo conveyed the message to the rape suspect’s father, Dzidzai Muganha, who agreed to pay the demanded $550. On March 2, 2015, he met Dembaremba at Evergreen in Rusape, and gave her $200, in the presence of his wife,” said Det Insp Nyamupfukudza.
“Dzidzai Muganha paid another $150, but it happened that his son was sentenced to 15 years on March 13, 2015 and this infuriated him. He confronted Dembaremba, who argued that she had actually worked hard to have five years of the initial sentence removed. She further argued that she had powers to subtract more years when the convict starts serving his custodial sentence and for this she demanded $200,” said Det Insp Nyamupfukudza.
When a distraught Dzidzai returned home, he shared his story with one Edmund Gororo and was told that he was being taken for a ride.
Mr Gororo approached Det Insp Nyamupfukudza, who on April 21, called Dzidzai to verify the claims, and then set up a trap involving four detectives.
Dembaremba was arrested at their Evergreen rendezvous after receiving $100 trap money. Dembaremba, in her statement denied the charges, saying the money was for onward submission to a lawyer for bail appending appeal application.
Online Reporter