Zimpapers Logo

Sheillah Mapani Herald Reporter
A Southerton policewoman is being sued by a Harare man for illegally impounding his vehicle and detaining it at Southerton Police Station over an expired ZBC radio licence.

Thoughts Deme applied at the Harare Civil Court for the return of his driver’s licence, car keys and goodies that were in his vehicle seized by a Sergeant Chiwenga.

The case was heard by Harare Civil Court magistrate Mr Lazin Ncube yesterday and was deferred to August 24.

The court heard that on July 23 this year, Deme was driving a Toyota Wish along Willovale Road and was stopped at a roadblock by Chiwenga, who was wielding a spike.

It is alleged that Chiwenga demanded Deme’s driver’s licence to which he complied.

She proceeded to inspect the vehicle checking for defects.

After a thorough inspection of the vehicle, she demanded to see a serviceable fire extinguisher, a set of reflective triangles, car jack, wheel spanners, spare wheel and the vehicle registration disk with the insurance cover note.

Chiwenga then indicated to Deme that the vehicle had no radio licence disk and demanded a spot fine of $100.

Deme told Chiwenga that the radio licence had expired in June this year and was going to renew it.

He then queried the amount for the fine and went on to request that Chiwenga produce a schedule of fines. It is alleged this did not go down well with Chiwenga, who threatened to lock Deme up in cells.

The court heard that Deme politely indicated to Chiwenga that he had the right to seek verification of the fine and that he had the right to pay legally acceptable fine within seven days and not on the spot. Chiwenga suddenly opened the car door, got into the vehicle and instructed Deme to drive into the station, which he also did.

While inside the police station Chiwenga indicated to Deme that he should pay his fine or she was going to lock him up and confiscate the vehicle.