Spar apologises for embarrassing ill Emberton
By Silence Charumbira
Showbiz Editor
Spar Zimbabwe has apologised for embarrasing former ZBC newscaster Dave Emberton after he was mistakenly arrested for allegedly stealing bacon at the organisation’s Letombo Branch.
Terrence Yeatman, Spar Zimbabwe managing director issued a public apology yesterday afternoon in a video posted on Facebook having lunch with Emberton and acknowledged their security had failed to properly handle the issue.
Emberton was arrested and photographed while handcuffed and siting on the floor.
“Yesterday there was an incident in one of our stores with Mr Dave Emberton. We acknowledge as Spar that we could have handled the incident differently,” Yeatman said.
He said their security team did not manage the issue properly and they had been brought to book and made an appeal to the British Embassy in Zimbabwe to grant Emberton’s wife Melody Kumopra a visa as she had unsuccessfully tried to acquire one a few times.
“Mr Emberton has recently gotten married this year to a beautiful wife and they really are trying to get to go back to Britain. Dave’s got a British passport and they would like to settle there… HHHGHis wife has been denied a visa two or three times I think it is; so we are appeal to the British High Commission that please acknowledge Mr Emberton’s request for his wife to get a visa to relocate to the UK,” said Yeatman.
He said they were blown away by the feedback from Zimbabwean around the world and said those that wished to assist him can send funds to Kumora’s Ecocash account 0777883472.
Alternatively, funds can be set to her account NMB 270084346, Swift Code NMBLZWWX.
In the same video a frail Emberton said: “I just would want to say I appreciate the support from around the world. The support for me and my wife has been tremendous and I truly appreciate the support.”
Yeatman said Emberton suffers from a mild dementia which he said was responsible for “what he did” Tuesday morning.
“Dave does suffer from a mild case of dementia which is why he did what he did yesterday. The Emberton family does feel he would be best helped in the UK where he will get support from the source, from the NHS side,” he said.
“From the Spar side we have apologised for the way things were handled and we hope this can go a long way…”
Watch the Facebook video here.
