South Africans arrested in Zimbabwe while working at Chitungwiza crash scene
The Herald Newspaper in Zimbabwe reported that South African nationals Pretorius Walter James Seymour, and Germishuizen Danica, alongside Zimbabwean national Cooper Daniel Colin, pleaded guilty to the offence of disturbing the flow of traffic and were fined.
Image: The Herald/Zimpapers
Two South African nationals who are forensic data analysts were arrested and charged in Zimbabwe after they were found working at an accident scene in Chitungwiza, a heavily populated town outside Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
State media in Zimbabwe, The Herald, reported that the two South Africans and their Zimbabwean accomplice were fined on the charge of disturbing the flow of traffic at the Chitungwiza accident scene, where 17 people tragically died in July.
Flowers are still strewn on the roadside where the July head-on collision, involving a minibus taxi and a haulage truck, happened.
According to The Herald newspaper, the three Cooper Daniel Colin, 33, and Pretorius Walter James Seymour, 51 and Germishuizen Danica, 23, pleaded guilty to the offence of disturbing the flow of traffic when they appeared before Harare magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe.
After pleading guilty, the trio was ordered to pay a fine of US$200 (around R3,500) each or risk facing four months imprisonment in Zimbabwe.
The Herald reported that Seymour and Danica are Johannesburg-based crash data forensic experts who came to Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the Chitungwiza crash to probe the circumstances around the Hunyani River bridge collision.
The two South Africans were reportedly issued with business visas by Zimbabwe’s immigration authorities.
Colin, Seymour and Danica went to the crash scene where they were observed marking the scrap marks using paint and a tape measure.
The Herald newspaper reported that in the course of their work, the three were obstructing the movement of traffic from Harare CBD to Chitungwiza, thereby causing a traffic jam.
A senior police officer who was travelling on the busy road quizzed the trio and arrested them when they could not give “a satisfactory explanation as to why they were performing that task without informing the local authorities”.
In June, IOL reported that the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said scores of South African nationals were languishing in Zimbabwe’s Harare Remand Prison, awaiting deportation, after they were arrested for breaching the neighbouring country’s immigration laws.
Another group of three South African men was not facing deportation, but will face trial in Zimbabwe's courts after they were charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
On the other hand, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission had established that a South African woman had been convicted for dealing in dangerous drugs in Zimbabwe, and was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
In an interview with IOL, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Jessie Majome said she had established that there are six men, who have been certified to be South African nationals who were ready for deportation from the Harare Remand Prison.
jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za
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