Police chief Godwin Matanga has no O’ Level certificate, Chihuri claims

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro

Former Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has claimed that his successor, Godwin Matanga is not qualified for his job adding that the security chief appointed after the November 2017 military coup does not have an O Level certificate and his deputies are more educated than him.

In an affidavit he filed at the High Court through his lawyer Addington Chinake on Friday, Chihuri claimed Matanga holds a diploma from the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management, which makes his position “vulnerable… because his deputies are more educated than him with Master’s and even PhD degrees.”

He accused Matanga of “continuously and systematically engaging in a strategy of harassing my family, relatives and workers.”

Mnangagwa’s administration has accused Chihuri of siphoning millions of dollars from the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), money which was mysteriously transferred to companies linked to his family or associates.

High Court Judge, Justice Felistas Chatukuta granted an application by prosecutor-general Kumbirai Hodzi for an order forcing Chihuri and his wife, Isobel Halima Khan, to explain how they acquired their properties as part of a process to seize them.

“Commissioner General Matanga is using all tactics to persecute me. As a result of his incompetence, which is due to lack of education, he is doing all that he can in order to secure his post.” Chihuri claimed.

“He does not even hold an O’ Level certificate which is a basic requirement for a constable to join the police. It goes to show that he was rewarded for being a willing participant in the coup process, and not on merit,” Chihuri said.

Chihuri claimed Mnangagwa was persecuting him because of their strained relationship dating back to the liberation struggle where the president allegedly snatched his then pregnant wife.

During the last days of Mugabe’s regime at the centre of factionalism in the ruling Zanu PF, there was a divided state security with the police headed by Chihuri supporting the then president Mugabe and the military supporting then vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, now President.

Chihuri allegedly left the country in the wake of the November 2017 military coup. Nehanda Radio