Two police officers in Zimbabwe were arrested on allegations of stealing US$158,000 from a suspect. Addmore Musiza, aged 34, and Tafara Machokoto, aged 41, appeared before Harare magistrate Stanford Mambanje on Wednesday facing charges of criminal abuse of office. The officers, who are stationed at CID Stores and Business, were assigned to investigate a theft case at National Foods on 3rd March 2023 at around 7 PM.
During their investigation, the officers interviewed a suspect named Edward Davai Mudowaye who had been arrested for stealing US$158,000 from National Foods in Aspindale, where he was employed. Mudowaye claimed that he had given the money to Susan Jiri for safekeeping. The suspect then led the two officers to Block 7 836 Matapi Flats, Mbare, where they recovered the stolen cash from Jiri.
However, the two officers did not return the cash as recovered property. Instead, they allegedly shared it among themselves. Furthermore, they later took Mudowaye to court, claiming that they had not recovered anything from him. The CID Homicide detectives received information about the alleged theft and arrested Musiza and Machokoto.
During the investigation, Musiza was found in possession of US$56,000, which he had buried in a maize field about 400 meters from his house. Machokoto was found in possession of US$22,000, which he had given to his aunt in Aspindale Park, Harare. Another US$3,000 was recovered from Jiri.
