Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ziyambi Ziyambi said the government will soon enact legislation empowering police officers to shoot to kill persons found in possession of machetes.
Ziyambi made the remarks while addressing the Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial inter-district conference in Chinhoyi. He said:
We are going to ban mabhemba in mining areas. We instructed police to shoot to kill those to be found with a machete, those arrested for possession of the weapon will not be granted bail.
The remarks come as hundreds of people have been killed across the country by machete-wielding gangs are active in gold-mining areas.
The gangsters referred to as MaShurugwi, attack not only artisanal miners but ordinary people going about their chores, robbing them of their possessions and sometimes leaving them for dead.