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Bulawayo Bureau
A BULAWAYO motorist allegedly beat up a police officer who blocked him as he attempted to flee after failing to produce a driver’s licence at a roadblock. Collen Maponga (26), who was driving along Matopos Road, allegedly assaulted Tichaona Kamuzondi (27) stationed at Bulawayo Central Traffic.

Maponga yesterday pleaded not guilty when he appeared before magistrate Ms Charity Maphosa.

He said he was retaliating after Kamuzondi hit him first.

Ms Maphosa remanded Maponga in custody to January 4.

“The police officer was the one who assaulted me first. He slapped me twice on my left cheek,” said Maponga.

“I retaliated by punching him. The other police officers at the roadblock ganged up against me and they started kicking me all over my body,” said Maponga.

Zeus Chinyoka, another police officer who was at the roadblock, said Maponga was the aggressor.

“The accused was asked to pull over and produce a driver’s licence but instead of co-operating, he became aggressive and tried to flee. As my colleague tried to stop him, the accused punched him,” said Chinyoka.

Prosecutor Memory Takaedza told the court that on December 17, 2015 Kamuzondi was on duty along Matopos Road where he was carrying out a festive season roadblock operation.

At around 10pm, Kamuzondi stopped a Nissan vehicle which was being driven by Maponga.

“Kamuzondi requested to see the accused’s driver’s licence, including his national identity card, but he failed to produce them.

“The accused then tried to flee but the complainant managed to remove the car keys from the vehicle and the accused became violent and punched the complainant once on the mouth and he sustained some injury on the lower lip,” said Takaedza.

The prosecutor said the police officers on duty managed to subdue Maponga who was violent and handcuffed him.