MUTARE- Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba says three escapees from a local quarantine centre are criminals who took advantage of a security lapse to run away from a mandatory process.
Addressing officials at Mutare Provincial Hospital while receiving a consignment of personal protective clothing worth thousands of dollars donated donated by Higher Life Foundation, Gwaradzimba said the three were initially arrested for illegal entry by Mozambique security forces and were handed over to Zimbabwean security forces.
They were then taken for mandatory quarantine at Mary Mount Teachers College in Mutare.
“This, indeed, is true that there were three returnees who were held at Mary Mount Teachers’ College who escaped from the quarantine centre, they escaped a day after they were quarantined. Yes, they escaped at night because, I am told, the windows have no burglar bars and there was no perimeter fence at the back of the hostel.
“We regard these people as criminal elements, our security forces are on the hunt for these people and for sure the law is not going to be kind to such people.
“In this incident, we slackened on the part of our security forces and it is a learning curve. It means, from now going forward, we are going to be vigilant and not make that mistake again,” said Gwaradzimba.
Investigations by the security forces have not yielded any results as the trio sold the state officials a dummy, presenting none existing residential addresses said Gwaradzimba.
She said the trio had no contact with Mozambicans as they were apprehended before crossing into that country.
“After investigation by our security forces, it was discovered that the information of the returnees on the bio data was false, especially the residential addresses. When security forces tried to make a follow-up, it was a plain ground without structures.
“They were apprehended by Mozambique security authorities before they entered that country and handed over to our security, luckily they do not have any contact with some people outside Zimbabwe, because our cases have been mostly coming out of the country,” said Gwaradzimba.
