BY STAFF REPORTER HOME Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe yesterday rushed to pay $195 500 compensation to a Gweru-based student Simon Mandoza, who was brutalised by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) in 2018. Kazembe had been given an ultimatum by Harare magistrate Tilda Mazhande to compensate Mandoza or risk a 60-day prison term. In a statement yesterday, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) said Mandoza became the latest person among dozens of people to successfully sue police and Cabinet ministers for damages caused by their misdemeanours and violation of human rights. “On Tuesday October 27, 2020, a legal adviser in Kazembe’s ministry only identified as P Madziviridze advised Mandoza’s lawyers, Fiona Iliff and Obey Shava of ZLHR through a letter that payment had been effected and attached proof of payment confirming the transfer of funds,” read the ZLHR statement. “Through his lawyers, Mandoza sued Kazembe and the ZRP Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga after police officers arrested the college student on September 20, 2018 while he was standing outside a fast-food outlet in Harare’s central business district (CBD), waiting for his brother to pick him up.” It is said that unknown to Mandoza, some police officers were carrying out an operation against alleged informal traders in the CBD at that time. They then assaulted Mandoza. “While in the vehicle, ZRP members poked Mandoza with a truncheon on his shoulder and at the back of his head, threatening him with further assault. Mandoza was taken to Harare Central Police Station where he was finally released without a charge preferred against him,” the human rights lawyers said.