Massive corruption at Chitungwiza Magistrate’s court unearthed

Chitungwiza- JUSTICE delivery at Chitungwiza Magistrate Court is riddled with a complicated corruption network that involves criminals, prosecutors, magistrates, police officers and court officials,Express Mail Zim can reveal .

A two- week long investigation involving interviews with multiple sources and victims established that well-known criminals with multiple cases of house break-ins, armed robbery and kidnapping are going scot free either being released without charge by Investigating officers where money is exchanging hands.

“Some armed robbery cases are sometimes lessened to unlawful entry by investigating officers and their superiors. This has been worsened by corrupt CID bosses who are also incompetent such that they are either unable to or deliberately fail to supervise cases reported. There are also reports of a notorious criminal gang of armed robbers terrorising Chitungwiza,” said a victim who preferred anonymity.

One such bizare case is that of notorious criminal Tatenda Bhobho who has been a regular guest at the court but always walks scot free.

“Bhobho even brags that if you have money you can simply circumvent the local justice delivery system because of probably poor renumeration of law officers,” said a former cop now based in South Africa .

Bhobho has 10 cases of theft and assault still pending before the courts and have taken ages to reach finality.

According to a latest report by Transparency International Zimbabwe, the bribery rate for the police is 24 per cent, while 25 per cent of people think most or all judges and magistrates are corrupt.

Government has been intensifying efforts to curb the rise of corruption in the justice delivery system.

The prosecution rate of high profile individuals is also low pointing out to money exchanging hands.

Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission chairperson Loice Matanda-Moyo could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.