We are not a mafia company: Impala

IMPALA Car Rental, whose vehicle was used in the alleged abduction of Tawanda Muchehiwa, nephew of senior journalist and ZimLive editor Mdudusi Mathuthu, has said it played no role in the crime and has so far been fully co-operating with law enforcement agents.

Addressing a Press conference at the company's premises in Harare for the first time since the alleged abduction in July, Impala's lawyer Jivas Mudimu said the company was a law-abiding citizen.

Muchehiwa was allegedly abducted and tortured ahead of the foiled July 31 protests in Bulawayo before being dumped close to his home a few days later.

Mudimu said so far, the company had co-operated in police investigations and had since surrendered documents related to the vehicle in question to the investigators.

"We are ready to assist the law enforcement agents in any way we can. In fact, the CEO of the company, Thompson Dondo went to Braeside Police Station as soon as the incident happened to try and understand what sort of help we could give, but he was told that he was neither a complainant nor an accused person and, therefore, police would look for him when they found it necessary," Mudimu said.

"Indeed, police officers from the Law and Order Section later visited our premises and collected the file containing all the information on the vehicle in question and they even gave us a notice of seizure to that effect. Later on, the deputy sheriff came and requested for the same file and we duly informed them that it had been seized by police."

He said it was true that the vehicle which was used had been hired from the company, but there was no tracking system on it since it had been leased to the company by an individual.

"We can, indeed, confirm that the vehicle which was seen in the CCTV is ours. It is a third-party vehicle, so we did not have a tracking system on it.

"The issue is that we have no power to dictate what use a client make of the car, but, of course, we do not condone their use in criminal activities and that is why we are cooperating fully with police to ensure that Muchehiwa gets justice," he said.

He added: "We have nothing to hide. Those who know us will tell you what we do. They will tell you that we are a good company."

Last week, a Press conference by Zimbabwe National Students Union ended prematurely after its president Takudzwa Ngadziore and a number of journalists were attacked by unknown assailants close to the car rental company.