BARELY 10 days after suffering a jaw breaking assault at the PF Secretariat in Lusaka, another police officer has suffered another beating, this time at the hands of not cadres but a Vitz driver.
The arena of the assault this time is Ndola on the Copperbelt.
A fresh and young traffic police constable, Raphael Kafupi is nursing painful ribs and a bruised elbow sustained from an encounter with a venomous Vitz driver, Max Malumba from Lusaka.
According to persons close to the matter, Malumba was hurtling smoke from his tiny automobile enroute to Lusaka passing near Ndola Golf Club when he caught the attention of the police for driving above the speed limit.
Without concern for his bones and blood, young constable Kafupi performed some acrobatic leaps onto the tarred road forcing Mulumba to burn some rubber as his car came to a screeching halt much to his annoyance.
Before Mulumba could figure out what the white capped article he almost bashed was, Kafupi flung the door of the car open ordering the speedster out of his vehicle.
However, Malumba embarked on scolding Kafupi over his antics and when he thought words were not sinking in, he delivered a flurry of some karate moves dropping the officer cold on the roadside.
With his police cap thrown a metre away from his body and now filled with dust and grass from his painful fall, Kafupi’s colleagues picked him up and assisted him to cough out the strands of grass he had mistakenly swallowed during the beating.
They also picked his cap and dusted it of ants and sand and firmly placed it on his battered head.
With their colleague now up and standing, the officers managed to overpower Malumba and threw him in cells.
Dusty and battered, Kafupi stretchered himself to the Police General Duties Enquiries Desk where he narrated his ordeal at the hands of Malumba and lodged a complaint.
In confirming the incident, Copperbelt Police Commissioner Elias Chushi said aside from his traffic offences, Malumba has also been heaped with the serious charge of assault of a police officer which is likely to keep him away from his steering wheel for some period after he appears in court.
©Kalemba May 12, 2021
