Corruption probe councillor arrested over cop death

By Lance Guma

A councillor who led a probe into the corrupt acquisition of council land by businessman Philip Chiyangwa and Minister Ignatius Chombo, was arrested Sunday morning over the death of a policeman in Glen View last month.

Warship Dumba, the MDC-T councillor for Ward 17 in Mount Pleasant, was arrested around 6am on Sunday after officers from the Law and Order Section swooped on his residence. MDC-T Senator and Deputy Justice Minister Obert Gutu confirmed the arrest in an interview with SW Radio Africa on Monday.

Dumba’s lawyer Charles Kwaramba suspects his client was briefly held at the notorious Matapi Police Station in Mbare before being transferred to Harare Central. It brings to three the number of councillors arrested by police after Tungamirai Madzokere and Sydney Chirombe were picked up last Thursday.

A total of 24 MDC-T activists are now in custody as police brazenly continue a politicized witch hunt. This follows the death of Inspector Petros Mutedza in a night club brawl with street vendors in Glen View last month. ZANU PF are determined to use the incident for propaganda purposes, claiming it shows the MDC-T are a violent party.

But as Gutu observed, the arrest of Dumba has nothing to do with the death of the policeman but an attempt by Chombo and Chiyangwa to settle old scores. Dumba hit the headlines last year after leading a council investigation of corrupt land deals that involved Local Government Minister Chombo and businessman Chiyangwa.

When Dumba and his team gave the incriminating report to the police to investigate, the police instead arrested them and the journalists who covered the story. In March Chombo claimed to have sacked Dumba and Casper Takura, accusing them of dishonesty, fraud and mismanagement of council funds.

Last month at least 20 MDC-T activists were arrested over Mutedza’s murder, in what the party said was an attempt to tarnish their image ahead of the crucial SADC discussions about Zimbabwe, in South Africa this past weekend.

Meanwhile attempts to get bail for the activists again hit a brick wall on Monday after the Attorney Generals’ Office for the third time in a row engineered a postponement in court. Justice Tendai Uchena claimed he needed more time to rule on last minute submissions by the state in opposing the bail application. SW Radio Africa