CID boss claims officers planted cash in cabinet
By Tendayi Madhomu
Bulawayo’s CID Fraud squad boss, George Machinga, who is facing charges of criminal abuse of office following allegations that he solicited a $300 bribe from a man accused of fraud, on Monday claimed that police officers who searched his office planted the cash in the steel cabinet.
Machinga, the officer in charge at CID Fraud Section at Cabs Building, appeared before Magistrate Gladmore Mushove at the Bulawayo Magistrates’ Courts where he pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges.
He was arrested on June 20 2014 after a trap was set by a team of police officers following a report by the complainant, Pardon Dube, at the ZRP Provincial Headquarters in the city.
The officers photocopied the bank notes that were to be used by Dube, a trustee and mediator of Khayalami Heritage Community Development Trust, to pay Machinga.
Chief Inspector Maxwell Nsingo, who headed the officers who conducted the search in Machinga’s office, testified during trial on Monday.
He told the court that the officers found the banknotes stashed under a picture frame inside a metal filing cabinet in the office, after two and half hours of searching.
Machinga, through his lawyer, Mlamuli Ncube of Cheda and Partners, alleged that the officers planted the cash while he was in the toilet, adding that it was not procedural for the officers who formed the trap to be part of the arresting team.
“Since you did not lock the door or give him the keys when he went to the toilet, I put it to you that one of you planted the $300 in the steel cabinet that had been
searched before,” argued Ncube.
“I put it to you that either – you or one of you – had reason to do that because you saw (that) your trap was now failing after two hours of searching.”
Machinga claimed that Nsingo’s superior, Chief Superintendant Lesley Tseretse Manike, had a score to settle
with him as he had once arrested his only remaining sister.
“Your superior, Chief Superintendant Manike, has a grudge against the accused person since the accused once arrested his only remaining sister,” said the defence lawyer.
In his evidence, Nsingo said eight officers conducted the search in Machinga‘s office.
He said during the search that Machinga was ‘uneasy’ and kept insisting that he wanted to go to the toilet.
The defence lawyer suggested that it was suspicious that the money was only recovered upon Machinga’s return from the toilet, and that after two and half hours of searching a ‘fairly small’ office.
On June 19 2014, Machinga allegedly ordered Dube to pay $300 ‘to buy his freedom’ and $250 to reimburse Cordelia Bachisi, a woman he allegedly duped while masquerading as a lawyer.
The trial continues on August 20 2014. The Zimbabwe Mail
