ZB ZB
Live now
Start time
Playing for
End time
Listen live
Listen to NAME OF STATION
Up next
Listen live on
ZB

PM can 'understand concerns' about former secret police officer for Robert Mugabe living in NZ

Author
Barry Soper,
Publish Date
Tue, 14 Feb 2017, 5:18AM
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe (Getty Images).
Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe (Getty Images).

PM can 'understand concerns' about former secret police officer for Robert Mugabe living in NZ

Author
Barry Soper,
Publish Date
Tue, 14 Feb 2017, 5:18AM

The Prime Minister says he can understand concerns about a former member of Robert Mugabe's secret police living in New Zealand.

31-year-old William Nduku has admitted to around 20 murders, several rapes and multiple tortures.

He came here under a fake South African passport and is now a protected person under the Immigration Act because he says he would be killed if he returned to Zimbabwe. He has so far been refused residency allowing him to work or study.

Bill English said he "can see why people would be concerned".

"There's a lot of expectation from New Zealanders that we are a compassionate and open nation that if people turn up coming from much worse circumstances that we're welcoming.

"On the other hand you have to be able to control to a significant extent whether the appropriate people are coming across the border and being allowed to stay."

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he can't understand how in this day and age, this sort of thing can happen.

Mr Peters said it's always New Zealand these people choose - and it's telling.

"Why don't they go to some other country much closer to where they were rather than all the way across half the world to little old New Zealand? It suggests we have a soft touch.

"Could we have some answers to those questions from the Government, rather than the kind of cavalier response they give, not just in this case but possibly in thousands of cases, because if you look at the number of over-stayers in New Zealand, it's in the thousands."

 

 

Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you