Chimombe, Mpofu beaten at Chikurubi over contraband phones

A glowing WhatsApp status flipped into a brutal cellblock crackdown, leaving two fraud convicts battered, guards fired, and their sentence perks basically hanging by a thread.

Phone bust inside Chikurubi

• Moses Mpofu’s active WhatsApp status tipped off a monitoring team.
• Surveillance tracked Facebook and WhatsApp activity before the raid.
• Officers stormed his cell and grabbed an iPhone.
• Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison staff allegedly beat Mpofu for answers.

Confession drags in the partner and the guards

• Under pressure, Mpofu pointed at Mike Chimombe.
• He also named officers accused of hiding phones during the day.
• A follow-up search in Chimombe’s cell found another iPhone.
• Both inmates landed in the prison hospital after the assaults.

Officers fired after internal sweep

• Searches of staff quarters turned up iPhone chargers.
• Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service convened a disciplinary tribunal.
• Last Friday’s hearing ended with the implicated guards dismissed.
• No official ZPCS statement has confirmed the firings yet.

Remission and wider probe at risk

• Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, oversees the prison service.
• Authorities are weighing scrapping remission for both men.
• Investigators are combing through their outside communications.
• Further criminal charges could follow if new offenses surface.

Background and political reaction

• Chimombe is serving 17 years with five suspended.
• Mpofu received 22 years with eight suspended.
• Both convictions stem from the Presidential Goat Pass-On Scheme fraud.
• Hopewell Chin’ono posted on X that power vanished after the party fallout.