Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri yesterday scoffed at calls for him to resign from the helm of the force, saying he “will not be told what to do by sell-outs and puppets”.
The chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Justice, Douglas Mwonzora, who is also MDC-T national spokesperson, made the call following violent scenes at Parliament on Saturday where Zanu PF activists disturbed proceedings during public hearings on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Bill.
The activists stormed the august House, chanting the party’s liberation war songs and slogans, beating up journalists and MPs before intimidating the chairman of the Copac Thematic Committee on Human Rights, Zaka Senator Misheck Marava.
The mob manhandled and assaulted Hwange Central MP Brian Tshuma (MDC-T) and almost mistakenly beat up their own, Makonde MP Rusipa Kapesa (Zanu PF), before pouncing on journalists.
In an interview at Ntabazinduna Police Training Depot, Chihuri said: “I know that the people of Zimbabwe are with me in everything I do and I will not be told what to do by sell-outs and puppets.
“When a mad man shouts, you do not shout back at the mad man, and when an elephant walks past and dogs bark at it, it does not bark back.”
Chihuri said people had a tendency of talking about him to gain political mileage.
“People talk, meditate and dream about me all the time, day and night. If they do not talk about me they do not appear in newspapers and some cannot sell their newspapers,” he said.
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Meanwhile, Vice-President John Nkomo, in a speech read on his behalf by Home Affairs co-minister Kembo Mohadi, said Zimbabweans should be wary of “merchants of political violence”.
“It is quite disturbing to note that, some disillusioned citizens of Zimbabwe are frequently making politically inflammatory and irresponsible statements designed to sow seeds of disharmony,” he said.
“More worrisome is the fact that these reckless utterances are attacking the fibre of national unity and acting as launchpads for political violence.”
Nkomo said the police force had the constitutional mandate to maintain law and order in the country, “hence it shall continue to arrest perpetrators of violence regardless of their political affiliation or station in life”.
Nkomo urged Zimbabweans to “consign the politics of regionalism and tribalism to the dustbin of history as it has no place and relevance in our progressive society”.
