Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri waded into politics again this week as he dismissed the widely-held perception that the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is partisan.
He claimed police had become “punchbags” for failed politicians who blame the force for their failures.
“You don’t realise the good you have until it’s no more there (sic). We (the ZRP) don’t concentrate on the negatives,” Chihuri told a group of police officers who were leaving for United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions in three African countries on Tuesday.
“We are genuine at heart, we try our level best and we put our all into it.”
If Zimbabwe was a normal country with honest people leading the institutions such as the police, the Commissioner-General would have been taken to task for misleading the nation.
Zimbabweans are demanding the restoration of the police force into a professional force that serves all Zimbabweans without fear or favour.
Chihuri has superintended over the transformation of the ZRP into a Zanu PF-aligned organisation.
But he still believes that the fact that the UN continues to invite Zimbabwe into peacekeeping missions vindicates the ZRP.
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As Chihuri made these dishonest claims, police were sealing off Glen View in Harare where the High Court was conducting an inspection in loco of the scene where Police Inspector Petros Mutedza was allegedly murdered by MDC-T activists last year.
Heavily-armed police officers barred motorists and ordinary residents from using roads leading to the shopping centre.
Journalists from the independent media were abused by overzealous officers before they were barred from covering the proceedings.
State journalists were given “permission” to cover the open court.
On the same day, but in Mutare this time, junior police officers were accusing one of their bosses of using excessive force to extract evidence from four suspected diamond panners.
One of the villagers, Tsorosai Kusena, died allegedly after being severely assaulted by Chief Superintendent Joseph Chani in September last year.
The case of the Shamva police officers who were easily given bail by the courts after allegedly murdering a resident earlier this year is also one of the reasons why Zimbabweans have lost confidence in the police force.
Four years after the shameful 2008 political violence, the ZRP is yet to bring to justice hundreds of Zanu PF-aligned militants who were fingered in gross human rights violations.
How Chihuri then goes to publicly claim the police force he oversees is professional, genuine and good at heart is beyond belief.
We recall that not long ago the MDCs were opposed to his reappointment as police boss. This was an indictment of him and his force’s partiality. They have not exactly covered themselves in glory in the manner they have conducted their duties.
It is time for Chihuri to remove his head from the sand that he has covered it in, and maybe he will see how much credibility his force has lost.
