MDC discover name of policeman who shot and killed Tandare

By Tichaona Sibanda
16 March 2007

Concerned officers in the Zimbabwe Republic Police have leaked to the MDC the name of the officer who shot and killed Gift Tandare in Highfields on Sunday.

Youth assembly secretary-general of the MDC Solomon Madzore said they have also been supplied with names of all those who savagely tortured party president Morgan Tsvangirai and others at Highfields police station the same day.

Madzore, who was about five metres away from where Tandare was hit and fell, said it took paramedics at least four hours to get to their mortally wounded colleague.

But by the time paramedics got to him he was already dead. In the aftermath of the shooting and brutal attacks police issued a statement defending their actions, insisting that they had fired 18 warning shots.

Those who were in the crowd have disputed this. Madzore said activists saw one officer grabbing a gun from another policeman clad in riot gear and firing indiscriminately at the crowd. At no time did anyone fire warning shots. It’s believed the officer who discharged the firearm could be the individual responsible for shooting dead Tandare.

‘We have passed on the names of those who beat our leaders to the necessary individuals in the party and they have promised us that those responsible will one day stand trial for their atrocities,’ Madzore said.

The full interview with Solomon Madzore will be broadcast on the Hidden Story on Monday after the news.