THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) yesterday accused some “corrupt police officers” dismissed from the police force of smearing the organisation.
Report by Everson Mushava
This follows a report by NewsDay yesterday that staff morale has hit rock-bottom due to outstanding constitutional referendum allowances and alleged pampering of traffic police officers — treated as “golden geese” — with hefty allowances, while the bulk of the junior officers wallow in poverty.
The allegations were contained in a letter by some disgruntled police officers who requested anonymity following an internal radio communication by election commander, Senior Assistant Commissioner Lee Muchemwa, alleging the force had not received money from Treasury.
In a statement, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, while confirming the dispute over the outstanding allowances, said the allegations were “misplaced fabrications” calculated at bringing the name of the ZRP into disrepute.
She said the allegations were coming from some corrupt individuals fired from the force who were representing political parties pushing “to achieve their reg ime change machinations and security sector reform agenda”.
Charamba, who did not dispute the authenticity of the internal police communication to officers over the decision to slash their allowances, said: “It is disturbing and alarming to note that some unscrupulous and devious individuals and groups are now accessing police sensitive information and roping in the media to cause alarm and despondency to hardworking and disciplined police officers.
“We want to make it equivocally clear that comprehensive enquiries have been instituted to identify and nab unruly elements who are circulating frivolous and false information which is not only detrimental to the police, but also a threat to the country’s internal security.”
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Charamba added: “Some of the corrupt malcontents who were arrested and chucked out of the organisation are now being used by some unscrupulous individuals in political parties. We are quite aware that some political parties, individuals and certain non-governmental organisations have been pushing and championing for security sector reforms and have even gone to the extent of underfunding the ZRP’s constitutional operations so that there is disgruntlement.
“These efforts have been futile. Now they have resorted to using corrupt individuals within the force. This will not work as the ZRP is quite aware of these odd tricks and tactics.”
The disgruntled police officers also slammed Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri accusing him of using divide- and-rule tactics to run the force, treating traffic cops as “cash cows” while the rest were treated as “donkeys’.
