BY CHARLES LAITON
FORMER police Assistant Commissioner Gideon Baloyi has exposed the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP)’s alleged underhand dealings, including cover-ups for officers who committed murder and other various offences.
Baloyi made the exposé in a court application filed on March 3 this year, in which he is challenging his dismissal by then Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri in 2015 after accusing his boss of covering up high-profile criminal cases and rewarding corruption.
In his court challenge, Baloyi said he was forced to retire from the police force at gunpoint after he spilled the beans over his bosses’ shenanigans in court. At the time of his dismissal, he was in charge of operations in Masvingo province.
In a letter dated May 1, 2015 addressed to the Home Affairs minister and copied to the late former President Robert Mugabe, Justice minister, ZRP Commissioner-General, Public Service Commission, director-general in the President’s Office and the Prosecutor-General, Baloyi said he was puzzled as to why the ZRP did not pursue murder reports that had been filed against police officers.
“I wrote a letter to the Commissioner-General (Chihuri) on December 7, 2014 and I am sure you (minister) had a copy to that effect, sir. It was my hope and trust that the Commissioner-General would favour me with a response, but he chose not to. Why he chose not to respond to my letter is unknown to me,” Baloyi said.
“A follow-up correspondence dated March 26, 2015 was delivered to his office and I am sure you were also given a copy to that effect, Sir. All the same, the Commissioner-General chose not to respond to my letter once again. Why he could not favour me with that much-needed response still remains unknown to me.”
Baloyi said as a result of the bad blood between him and Chihuri, the latter caused his arrest on trumped up charges, and he was later acquitted by the High Court.
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He continued: “Sir, what I am humbly asking is for you to pressure the Commissioner-General of Police to take his child killer to court for justice to take its course. Paragraph 5 of my letter dated December 7, 2014, here attached says it all and how the killer was shamelessly rewarded for killing a street kid… our Commissioner-General is busy protecting such heartless murderers in the organisation. If it means that the murderers’ appearance in court would also drag the big boss, so let it be.”
Besides the murders, Baloyi also said several other top police officers were protected by Chihuri after committing various crimes.
“Defeating the course of justice, according to my understanding applies equally to all public office holders, police officers included. Nobody is being charged for the above crime for having accepted his resignation letter knowingly enough that he had committed a crime,” he said.
