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Prosper Dembedza Court Correspondent
A 29-year-old man who masquaraded as a traffic policeman was yesterday jailed eight months after he was found guilty of carrying out police traffic patrols in  Harare’s Central Business District wearing the force’s uniform.

Malvin Mutambirwa was charged with impersonation and extortion when he appeared before magistrate Mrs Nomsa Sabarauta. Mrs Sabarauta initially sentenced Mutambirwa to 12 months imprisonment before suspending four years on good behaviour.

In passing sentence Mrs Sabarauta said the public should respect the police uniform.

Allegations are that on November 8 at around 1pm police officers at Harare Central Operations met Mutambirwa who was clad in police uniform in the company of an accomplice, Kelvin Chiwamba (30), at the corner of Robert Mugabe Road and Cameron Street.

The court heard that the police officers allegedly requested the names of the two and to know where they were deployed since they were both wearing police uniform.

It is the State’s case that Chiwamba identified himself as a policeman stationed at Magamba Police in Chinhoyi and Mutambirwa denied that he was a policeman saying he was given the police uniform to wear by Chiwamba so that they could carry patrols in the CBD and solicit for cash from commuter omnibus drivers.