THE family of Detective Constable Cassandra Hove, a slain Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officer, who died early this month while reportedly pursuing some armed robbers, has protested against the clandestine and unprofessional manner in which the death of the law enforcement agent is being handled.
Cassandra’s father, Chikauriso Hove, has engaged the services of lawyers from Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), who on Wednesday 19 March 2025 wrote a letter of complaint to the Officer In Charge at ZRP Bulawayo Central Police and gave the law enforcement agency a seven-day ultimatum to furnish him with tangible details of circumstances, which caused and led to the death of his daughter.
The letter was also served on the Officer In Charge at Pumula Police Station, the Officer Commanding Bulawayo Province, ZRP Commissioner-General Stephen Mutamba and Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Hon. Kazembe Kazembe.
In the letter, Hove protested against the opaque and unprofessional manner in which the death of her daughter was being handled by ZRP.
Hove said he is aggrieved and pained by the conduct of ZRP, her deceased daughter’s employer, that she served diligently and dearly with her life, which had a duty to protect her, but was not forthcoming with sharing information to the family surrounding the circumstances which led to Cassandra’s death, which should help the grieving family to find closure.
The family, Hove said, is disturbed by the fact that family members seem to be getting second hand information and late updates on Cassandra’s matter through unofficial channels and just recently, it came to their attention that a certain police officer had confessed to killing their daughter.
Hove said Cassandra’s family is greatly concerned about the allegations that the she may have met her fate at the hands of one of her colleagues.
In addition, Hove said Cassandra’s family is alarmed at the allegations raised about the conduct of one Lethokuhle Sibanda, who later on was known to be a colleague of the deceased law enforcement agent operating in the same unit with the late police officer, and who had reportedly completed some forms authorising the carrying out of a post-mortem on the body of the deceased person without consulting his family.
Hove also stated that his family had been advised that sometime after Cassandra had been shot, the same Sibanda had visited the deceased person’s residence, where she found the late law enforcement
agent’s children and demanded certain information pertaining to her residential properties and demanded her mobile phones but her children refused to comply after getting guidance from their relatives.
Cassandra’s father also complained that Sibanda had received R3 000 from the residents of Luveve suburb in Bulawayo as a contribution to the deceased law enforcement agent’s funeral but the money was not remitted to the family, conduct which the family is concerned about.
Hove added that his family had also received information that a suspect, named Fikile Ncube, had been arrested by ZRP officers on the night when Cassandra died in connection to her death but this information was not officially communicated to the family or his relatives.
On 8 March 2025, Hove said he attended a meeting together with his relatives with the Officer In Charge of CID Homicide in Bulawayo and other ZRP officials, where he was informed that the preliminary findings were that his daughter had been shot by a police issued firearm contrary to what the family had been told before and efforts to get full information as to what could have happened to his daughter were futile as the ZRP officials were not forthcoming.
Hove said Cassandra’s family had after much deliberation, reluctantly agreed to take her body as it was to be buried in Mberengwa while the family was promised by ZRP officials that they will be kept updated on the progress of investigations about her death.
After Cassandra’s burial, Hove said the family reported a case of murder at ZRP Pumula Police Station on 13 March 2025, after not receiving any communication from the law enforcement agency in a bid to get answers in the matter.
ENDS
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