At least 35 Zimbabweans have been killed in the last 13 months by machete wielding gangs, Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe has revealed.<\/p>\n
He was giving oral evidence before a joint sitting by the Mines committee and two other committees in parliament on Monday.<\/p>\n
The other committees are those in charge of Defence and Home Affairs as well as the Thematic Committee on Peace and Security.<\/p>\n
Kazembe said between January last year to date, the criminal gangs have also 15 women and assaulted 382 people with 225 robberies also recorded.<\/p>\n
He ruled out any thoughts by government to deploy the army to deal with dangerous gangs that have been terrorising villagers mostly in the country’s mining areas and surrounding towns.<\/p>\n
“I do not subscribe to the army (idea); so far so good. We are seeing results. It is all nice and quiet. Go to Mazowe, Kitsiyatota, Manicaland, police are achieving sanity.<\/p>\n
“To date, most of the gangsters’ coordinators have been arrested. We have efficient police. There is no need to escalate the issue to the army,” Kazembe said.<\/p>\n
He said statistics relating to machete violence have also gone down.<\/p>\n
“Cases of such crimes (in Filabusi) have gone down. I have not heard any cases at the rate we used to.<\/p>\n
“(Police) operations are on-going until there is complete sanity.”<\/p>\n
Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services portfolio committee chairperson Levi Mayihlome asked the minister why police only sprang to action when one of their own had been killed at a Kadoma mine late last year.<\/p>\n
Kazembe exonerated police amid accusations of alleged inactivity as the gangs waged a terror onslaught in affected areas.<\/p>\n
He added, “From January to December 2019, 4 062 arrests have been made during the ‘No to Anarchy Operation; 1832 arrests have been made to those dealing in dangerous weapons such as machetes and in the last 36 days, 3 137 arrests have been made.”<\/p>\n
Kazembe attributed the machete gang menace to lack of order within the country’s mines.<\/p>\n
“As long as there is order in the mining sector, crimes become less.<\/p>\n
“Laws are not clear and there is a lot that needs to be done when laws pertaining to mining are crafted.”<\/p>\n
Kazembe could not bring himself to confirming reports that rogue police and army officers were also involved clandestinely in the machete wars.<\/p>\n
“Yes, I cannot deny nor confirm to that but a couple of them (police) have been arrested and appeared before the courts,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At least 35 Zimbabweans have been killed in the last 13 months by machete wielding gangs, Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe has revealed. He was giving oral evidence before a joint sitting by the Mines committee and two other committees in parliament on Monday. The other committees are those in charge of Defence and Home […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[128,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-19942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-death"},"yoast_head":"\n