Revealed: Police Commissioner Godwin Matanga Does Not Even Hold An O’level Certificate
29 June 2020
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POLICE Commissioner Godwin Matanga instructed a police constable to shoot former police boss Augustine Chihuri and burn his Greystone Park house in December 2017, Chihuri has revealed.

“My family home was burnt beyond recognition,” he said.

“The fire was started in my home office burning all files, records, 15 Bibles, etc were destroyed.

“To make sure that the records and files were destroyed, he took a 20-litre diesel container and another container with oil.

“He sprayed both in the office, the main bedroom as the major target and so he did the rest of the house except the guest wing.

“Maukazuva [the constable] is facing serious criminal charges, two attempted murder charges and one of arson and malicious injury to property.”

Chihuri accuses Matanga of doing Mnangagwa’s bidding by pursuing criminal cases against him.

Chihuri alleged Matanga systematically engaged in a strategy of harassing his family, relatives and workers, threatening and beating his workers at gunpoint.

“The harassment was made worse when my young children would be threatened by police with guns to produce their father and said that they had been sent by Matanga,” he claimed.

“My children are suffering emotional trauma and they started having nightmares, refusing to go to school as unmarked vehicles would be following them going to and coming back from school.”

Chihuri alleged Matanga was using “all tactics” to persecute him as a result of his “incompetence, which is due to lack of education”.

He claimed the police boss does not have O’Level qualifications.

“He is doing all that he can in order to secure his post,” Chihuri claimed.

“He realises that as a mere ZIPAM diploma holder on behest of ZRP (sic), having been promoted to the post of the country’s police chief is a vulnerable position because his deputies are more educated than him, with Masters and even PhD degrees,” Chihuri said.

“He does not even hold an O’ Level certificate, which is a basic requirement for a constable to join the police.

“It goes on to show that he was rewarded for being a willing participant in the coup process and not on merit.”

Chihuri said Matanga lied to then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander and now Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga that he (Chihuri) wanted to arrest him upon his return from China at Robert Mugabe International Airport just before the coup.

“This was not so, but a blatant lie to sow the seeds of division and hate between me and the then CDF. Godwin Matanga did all this to secure his position,” he said.

At the time of the coup it was alleged that attempts to arrest Chiwenga forced the military to move against Mugabe.

Chihuri said what surprises him was that all allegations against him were to do with the administration department, which Matanga used to head.

“By way of emphasis, I bring it to the attention of this honourable court that a lot of senior officers across the rank and file and my then deputies, including Godwin Matanga and his wife, supplied a wide range of vegetables and meat to ZRP amenities,” he said.

“These officers supplied large quantities of beef, chicken, vegetables, fruits and goods according to their ability as a general practice in support of indigenisation.

“The former SAC (Senior Assistant Commissioner) Charles Makono and his wife Abigail Makono, owners of Rewstand Pvt Ltd, also supplied uniform fabrics for over $10 million to ZRP ordinance.

“This company was also chosen by Godwin Matanga as many others he chose out of the 200 companies that were cleared by the procurement board to supply ZRP.”

He said the ZRP Retention Fund was not a creation of the police, but government.

As for the source of his wealth, Chihuri said besides salaries, bonus, conditions of service and savings from foreign trips over a period of 37 years, he was also a delegate and vice-president for Africa in Interpol.

“I was remunerated in foreign currency for serving in those organisations for six years,” he said, adding that he built his empire through “hard work and diligence.”

Chihuri skipped the country after he was fired and remains in self-imposed exile.

— The Standard