HOME Affairs co-minister Theresa Makone has threatened to confront Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri over reports that hundreds of untrained civilians have recently been attested into the police force without undergoing formal training.
REPORT BY BLESSED MHLANGA STAFF REPORTER
Addressing MDC-T supporters in Torwood over the weekend, Makone said she would push for the expulsion of the “untrained police officers” if it was proven that their integration into the police force was unprocedurally done.
“I am going to pursue the matter to the very end and ensure that all such police officers are dismissed from the force and those involved in these fraudulent activities are brought to book and charged,” Makone said.
“There are laid down procedures to attest a police officer which have to be followed and we (ministers) would like to know who changed these.”
Makone’s utterances followed reports that scores of civilians employed at police stations either as general hands or typists were in January attested as police officers and assigned ranks of police constable to assistant inspectors without undergoing formal training.
A copy of the contract of some of the employees reads: “The employee agrees and undertakes to continue working in the same post and manner as obtains prior to integration into the ZRP
. . . Employee shall be required to take oath of office so as to swear true allegiance to Zimbabwe . . . and to obey all lawful orders that may be given to her/him from time to time.”
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Clause 8 of the contract reads: “Subject to availability of resources, the employee shall be entitled to other conditions and benefits that apply to regular force members such as medical and accommodation (allowances).”
The move has irked other police officers, now earning salaries equal to office cleaners and general hands, also entitled to benefits enjoyed by trained cops.
A pay slip seen by NewsDay shows that the “untrained cops” had transport allowances of $95 and a housing allowance of $94.
Last Friday, one of the untrained staffers Constable Tinashe Mpofu (26), who prior to his elevation was a grinding mill operator at Kwekwe Police main camp, admitted to having been attested into the force without training.
Mpofu made the disclosure when he appeared before Kwekwe Provincial magistrate Taurai Manuwere charged with theft of police money.
An ex–police officer Tafadzwa Gambiza was last week arrested on allegations he had tried to influence part of the increasingly unhappy officers to steal a nominal roll with names of the untrained police officers from Kwekwe District Police Station.
Constable Amos Madzongwe, fingered in the plot, has since been transferred from Kwekwe Central to rural Silobela.
