THE family of the late Muchesa Chatsama has said that it is getting a run-around from the police and is now suspecting a cover-up.

Chatsama who was 43 years then, died after he was hit by a stray bullet when detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) were involved in a shootout with armed robbers in Marlborough. His body was discovered hours later in his office.

The police have said that they are still investigating the matter, but this has not satisfied the family of the deceased who want closure. There have been no significant developments in the case leading the family to suspect that there might be a cover-up.  Muchesa’s s family say police was trying to do a cover-up of some sort because some of the things you are seeing.

“These should be done or given or shown to us because we are relatives of the deceased. And also considering how he died, things should be open and fair and transparent but it seems if you go to this office you are not given any information. They just say we are investigating,” his sister Kuchinei who is a popular afro-jazz singer in the country and the region said.

“Then you say but in scenarios like this, we will be the complainants, and we are supposed to know what is happening. And we would even tell them [that] it seems as if things are being hidden as if it is a cover-up. Why is this so? Then they would say, no we are not covering up. We are still doing the investigations and the like but we honestly feel they were supposed to tell us because even right now we are still in the dark. We are still speculating, maybe this happened, maybe this happened, maybe this happened,” she said.

Muchesa was a farmer, political activist and journalist who wrote many critical articles about government policies, spending, operations and elections in the country. He wrote some of the stories with his sister Kuchinei.

“He had become used to threats of violence and death by some state agents, politicians and service chiefs. He always told us that he did not take the threats seriously as it had become a trend by government to threaten anyone who is critical of them…As a family what we want is justice and closure. The police have been intimidating us in the hoping that we will put the matter to rest, but we are not going to,” she said.

Chatsama’s wife Nhambu blamed the police for not being tactful in apprehending the suspected armed robbers saying rather than being overzealous after the arrests, the police had to check for any casualties.

“Feels so helpless watching your own brother covered in blood with a bullet in his chest after a police vs robbers shootout. Munhu akazvigarira muoffice make nhai wongobatanidzirwa. After exchanging fire with armed robbers in broad daylight in a neighborhood like Marlborough,” his wife said.