Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe and Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga have been slapped with an ultimatum after ‘trying to protect’ a corruption and money laundering accused Chinese national who used to supply leather products to the army, prisons and police.
Li Song, who was a co-director of Eagle Italian Leather Company, allegedly cooked documents for the purpose of buying foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) before transferring the money into an offshore Mauritius bank account for CureChem Company.
The complainant is Marconati who is the director of Eagle Italian Leather Company with 51% shareholding and is acting on behalf of Strengthened Investments Private Limited, together with a legal entity known as Cure Chem.
He is being represented by Obey Shava of Shava Law Chambers.
In his application, Marconati cited Officer in-charge of Harare Commercial Crimes Division (CCD), detective Assistant Inspector, Rungano Paduze stationed at Commercial Crime Division Police Harare, detective Sergeant Tadious Shenjere stationed at Commercial Crimes Division Harare, Commissioner General of Police Godwin Matanga, cited as the head of police service with a duty to supervise the entire police service.
In his application he said that there is need to put a stop to the continued abdication of duty by the police and also the fact that he is being victimized by the police for reporting a criminal offence.
“I believe that I have managed to prove that the police have all the necessary information to take Ms Li Song to court. In any event, should the information be insufficient, it is for the NPA to decide. Should the NPA decline to prosecute then I would take necessary steps permissible at law.
” As such, I submit that this application is well-founded. I pray for an order in terms of the draft order attached hereto,” reads the application.
The suit also mentioned that a preliminary investigations were done by the Bulawayo Police and they decided to refer the matter to CCD Harare.
“This was acknowledged through a letter dated 13 June 2022 signed by Superintendent Officer Commanding Team 2 M. Masunga. I attach the letter hereto and mark it Annexure H.
” When the matter was referred to Harare CCD. it was allocated to Detective Sergeant Tadious Shenjere. I have appeared before the aforementioned detective several times. He interviewed me and recorded my statement. He did the same with a representative of CureChem,” he said.
He also submited that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was forthcoming in this matter. It supplied the police with the Information they required.
Also, he said on or about 25 July 2022, a warrant of search and seizure was issued to Detective Sergeant Shenjere in respect of any documents required from Ecobank Zimbabwe for purposes of his investigations.
“On or about 13 December 2022, my lawyers wrote to the officer in charge CCD following up on the progress and requesting the police to at least communicate anything in case they are facing any challenges. Nothing to date has been communicated. I attach hereto the letter.
“I submit that the police have failed to perform any of the duties outlined above. I reported in 2021, and to date, Ms Li Song has not been taken to court despite the availability of overwhelming evidence and the fact that some cases I reported are straightforward.
“The failure by the police to perform their duties is detrimental to my property and business interests at large. My property interests and rights are being shortchanged and interfered with. Yet, I can only report to the police because the police have a constitutional obligation to maintain law and order and to detect, investigate and prevent crime. Doing anything contrary would amount to taking the law into my own hands,” he said.
