A Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service (ZPCS) officer from Mashonaland West, who died under contentious circumstances following his arrest on armed robbery charges will be buried today.
The late Tawanda Marumahoko will be buried at Karambazungu in Magunje following a long-delayed post-mortem.
Police were refusing to release his body to the family ahead of his burial and a post-mortem was only conducted on Friday after days of haggling.
“The post-mortem was finally done and showed that he was beaten, as there were marks on his body,” the deceased’s uncle, Officer Murumahoko, told Standard People yesterday.
The police alleged that Marumahoko was part of a gang that staged a US$10 000 armed robbery involving a bread delivery truck near Chinhoyi Heroes Acre a week ago.
In a statement, police said the truck driver, Kenneth Tsvarisai, implicated Marumahoko upon arrest.
Tsvarisai had allegedly initially reported what appeared to be a genuine armed robbery along the Harare–Chirundu Road. Police contend that Marumahoko died after being assaulted by a mob when he allegedly attempted to flee during a crime-scene indication exercise.
However, Marumahoko’s family including his widow, Mary Muzama, flatly rejected the police narrative.
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Muzama indicated that her husband sustained severe injuries consistent with custodial assault, and insisted that that claims that the late prison officer was attacked by a mob was merely a cover-up to mask torture inflicted while he was in police custody.
The case took a dramatic turn in court last Wednesday when Tsvarisai appeared before Chinhoyi magistrate Kudzanai Mahaso. The accused told the court he had been severely beaten while in police custody and that any statements he made were extracted under duress.
His allegations prompted Mahaso to refer the matter back to the police for further investigations, citing the need to clarify the circumstances under which the alleged confession occurred.
According to the deceased’s family, police informed them that they would only release the body after a post-mortem in Harare, a process for where no definitive date was provided.
“We haven’t seen our son up to this day,” his uncle said last Thursday.
“They should at least show us the body so we know we are mourning the right person.”
Mashonaland West provincial police spokesperson Inspector Ian Kohwera had advised the family to escalate the matter to the head of the Chinhoyi Criminal Investigation Department.
Observers said the saga raised urgent legal questions around procedural compliance, custodial responsibility, potential abuse of authority, and the integrity of the ongoing investigation.
