A Zimbabwean lady is suing the country’s police commissioner-general Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe for compensation worth $3 million after she was allegedly brutally assaulted by police enforcing lockdown rules during the COVID-19 national lockdown last year.
According to the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), the 63 year old woman who goes by the name Lydia Chapalapata was allegedly assaulted by Assistant Inspector Brighton Muchingami on April 1, 2020, while she was queuing to purchase maize meal at Nkulumane Sekusile Shopping Centre. He allegedly not only harassed and assaulted her all over her body with a truncheon claiming that she was violating national lockdown regulations, he also told her “there was no recourse at law for her as he was empowered by the national lockdown regulations promulgated by government to assault her”.
She is seeking compensation for injuries she sustained and treatment she received after the incident, to the tune of $3m (£2m) as she sustained injuries on her back, thighs, head, and on her knees and suffered trauma, anxiety and shock as a result of the incident and had to be hospitalised at Mpilo Central Hospital for treatment and was later referred for specialized medical attention,” the ZLHR said.
Muchingami, Matanga and Kazembe had not made any public comments yet.
After it announced its first COVID-19 lockdown measures, the Zimbabwean government also announced after that it would punish those that broke the regulations. According to police reports, thousands of people have been arrested since the outbreak of the disease in Zimbabwe in 2020.
