Council police beat up 'vendor'

A BULAWAYO man has been hospitalised following an alleged assault by Bulawayo municipal security guards after they mistook him for a vendor.

The guards allegedly swooped on Brighton Madegwe, 25, of Kingsdale suburb as he disembarked from a commuter omnibus with his mother and brother.

They allegedly beat him up with rubber truncheons until he lost consciousness.

The incident occurred at around 8AM last Wednesday.

Madegwe told The Chronicle he sustained head injuries, a deep cut just above his left eye and lost his HP laptop and a Nokia X201 cellphone.

"We had just got off a kombi at the bus stop along Joshua Mqabuko Street and Third Avenue when we stopped to greet our niece whom we had just bumped into.

"Before we even talked to her, we heard vendors shouting that the BCC police 4 Omakhokhoba are coming. Vendors in that whole area fled from their selling points and we remained standing as we had no reason to run awayf said Madegwe.

He said he was bewildered when the municipal security guards grabbed him and threw him into their truck where they thoroughly bashed him.

"The whole lot mercilessly beat me up with batons. Others kicked me until I passed out. I regained consciousness to find I was all bloody and at Drill Hall police station.

"Shockingly, the BCC police had told the police that I had incited other vendors to riot," Madegwe said.

His mother, Virginia Madegwe, told The Chronicle she could not understand why a truckful of municipal security guards singled out her son among scores of people along that street and trounced him.

"My two boys were carrying their laptop bags. From whichever angle, no sane person could have mistaken them for vendors. If anything, they looked like office workers. They chose to pick up Brighton among the three of us and we watched in shock as they ruthlessly beat him up for nothing.

"We rent a computer shop a few metres from that point. People actually took photos and videos of my son being savaged by BCC police. I wonder who gave them power to beat up members of the public," said Virginia.

She said she ran after the truck as it headed to Drill Hall Police Station, only to find her son unconscious.

"The officers were now applying first aid to him, pouring water over him. We made a report to the police who have now issued him with a report and we're now going to the Mpilo (Central) Hospital.

"I suspect he incurred serious internal head injuries because he has a huge depression which is worrying. He bled a lot from the eye and nose," she said.
 
A witness, Bezzy Ncube, who works dose to Brighton's shop, said he was shocked by the behaviour of the municipal security guards.

"We're shocked that these officers in light blue uniforms have become this violent. Even if Brighton was a vendor, we don't think there was reason to justify the way they beat him.

"Brighton isn't a vendor and we hope he identified those feces so that they can face justice for assaulting innocent people on the streets," he said.

The local authority's senior public relations officer, Nesisa Mpofu, had not responded to questions emailed to her on Thursday last week, by the time of going to Press.

Council in recent weeks has cracked down on unlicensed vendors who are resisting efforts to relocate to designated selling points.