A notorious machete gang that is known as Team Barca led by leaders Mike and Givy attacked police details who had been deployed at Good Hope Mine Brompton Battlefields on Saturday, leading to the death of Police Constable Wonder Hokoyo.
According to a police report, on the 27 December 2019 at around 1100 hours, Constable Hokoyo was deployed at Good Hope Mine Brompton Battlefields in the company of Costable Kamhuka, Constable Gurajena, Constable Tapfumaneyi (all male) Police officers and Constable Mwenje a female Police officer armed with FN rifles where there was a gold rush.
On 28 December 2019 at around 1400 hours, the accused persons with many others all still at large proceeded to the vicinity armed with machetes, catapults, and axes and forcefully took control of the mine shafts thereby dispersing the genuine miners who were extracting gold ore.
The Police details reacted to the accused persons, approached and fired some warning shots into the air in an attempt to disperse the accused persons but they did not take hid. Instead, the accused persons advanced towards the Police in a bid to attack.
One of the accused persons attacked Constable Hokoyo from behind and struck him once at the back of the head using a log and disarmed him leaving the Police officer with no option rather than to escape from the attack. At the same time, the accused disarmed Constable Kamhuka before he escaped from the scene after being assaulted all the body. The rest of the police officers managed to escape after noticing that their lives were under a threat.
The accused persons made a frantic chase to Constable Hokoyo and struck him all over his body using machetes and axes leaving him lying lifeless. The body of the deceased was found in a pool of blood approximately 100m away from the shafts. Constable Hokoyo later died due to injuries sustained as a result of the attack.
ZRP Battlefields was advised and attended to the scene. They also advised DRG Kadoma, Support Unit as well as CID and MFFU Kadoma who also attended the scene.
Violence in the Small-scale mining Industry has reached unprecedented levels. The Justice Minister is on record proposing Police shoot to kill violent machete gangs and his sentiments continue to seem to be a necessary move to thwart unruly elements. Some miners have welcomed Ziyambi’s stance saying its a necessary evil.
It is disturbing to note that the gangs are known (by name) for their violent deeds yet they roam the country freely. The Team Barca gang leaders Mike and Givy are well known. The team is known to brag about being untouchables as they are politically connected. One of the gang leaders known as “Kwadez” was shot and killed in Chegutu last month after a violent confrontation with the Police.
The police seem to be aware of the gang’s connections are afraid of taking action, echoing the sentiments by Minister Ziyambi that the gangs are arrested the next minute they are released. This makes the deployed officers vulnerable to attacks which may explain the hesitant behavior by the five deployed officers.
The body of the 27-year-old Constable Wonder Hokoyo was conveyed to Kadoma General Hospital Mortuary awaiting post-mortem.
