A SENIOR police officer based in Harare allegedly attempted to cover up a road traffic accident involving prominent businessman Moses Chingwena, who ran over and killed a pedestrian, Shephard Mukatira, in Harare’s leafy suburb of Gletwin on Saturday night, NewsDay Weekender has learnt.
BY Everson Mushava
Mukatira died when Chingwena’s vehicle veered off the road and hit him, dragging him for some metres before crashing into a precast wall of a nearby house.
After the accident, Chingwena allegedly took Mukatira to Trauma Centre for medical treatment without a police report. Mukatira later passed on that night and was buried in Mudzi district on Tuesday with Chingwena footing the funeral bill.
But fresh details have emerged that a senior police officer in the national command directorate (name supplied) called officers at Highlands Police Station and allegedly ordered them to make sure that Chingwena was not arrested and his car not impounded as is the norm after such an accident.
Chingwena’s friend, identified as Fabian Busa who was driving behind him, cleared the businessman’s car before the police arrived.
Busa also allegedly organised the removal of Chingwena’s damaged red Jaguar XJL from Poland Road from the scene of accident. The car ordinarily should have been impounded by the police and sent to Vehicle Inspectorate Department (VID) because it was involved in an accident that claimed a life.
When NewsDay visited Highlands Police Station on Tuesday, some police officers claimed there was no docket for the accident because the Chingwena and the Mukatira families had reached an agreement.
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Officers at Highlands Police Station attended the accident scene, but since Tuesday were evasive over the matter, refusing to provide NewsDay with a copy of the docket.
Police initially claimed that the matter had been resolved amicably between Chingwena and Mukatira’s relatives, but national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi on Thursday disclosed that the accident was recorded under case number 1236/20.
He also said they were investigating circumstances surrounding the handling of the accident.
