Philemon Jambaya
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights attorneys say that their clients need an update on the status of police investigations in a case in which they are seeking compensation for a road crash that happened in Mutare on May 4, 2022.
The crash is believed to have happened as a result of police operatives throwing spikes to force the stoppage of a kombi whose driver was trying to evade lawful instruction to stop.
Kevin Kabaya and Peggy Tavagadza are representing people injured in the crash in a legal suit lodged against ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Hon. Kazembe Kazembe at Mutare High Court.
Their clients, the lawyers said, wish to be furnished with information regarding at which stage the ZRP’s investigations into the matter are and the details of all traffic police officers who were at the scene of the accident.
They argued that in making the request they were exercising their right to access to information as enshrined in section 62 of the Constitution as read with section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act.
In an application for exception filed at Mutare High Court recently, ZRP argued that the victims had in their summons not specified the names of the primary perpetrators who caused the road traffic accident, hence the summons and the claim should be dismissed.
On 28 October 2022, Kabaya and Tavagadza wrote a letter to the Provincial Legal Officer at ZRP Manicaland provincial headquarters protesting that they had not been informed on whether any ZRP traffic police officers had been charged with any offence and whether any internal disciplinary procedures had been instituted arising from what the lawyers are terming “reckless conduct”.
Kabaya and Tavagadza said their clients were extremely concerned that they have neither been invited for interviews nor have any statements been recorded from them regarding the accident.
On December 12, 2022, the duo claimed payment amounting to US$18 000 on behalf of injured plaintiffs as damages for pain and suffering, permanent disfigurement, loss of amenities, nervous shock and future medical expenses.
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