Zimbabwe’s top policeman has urged the government to fix the country’s bleeding economy instead of relying on the police to end lawlessness.
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri last month wrote to Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and said the police were overstretched and virtually unable to carry out their duties, as most officers had been deployed on special government operations to restore law and order.
These ranged from operations to arrest shop owners selling basic commodities above prices stipulated by the state, public transporters overcharging for their services, illegal foreign currency traders, illegal grain buyers and illegal gold and diamond miners, Chihuri said.
”We are overwhelmed by the numerous operations that we are being asked to carry out in almost every facet of government. It is now as if the police have been assigned the role of governing the country,” read part of Chihuri’s letter, dated December 8 2006.
ZimOnline was shown a copy of the letter that Chihuri wrote to Mohadi in response to an earlier request by the Home Affairs Minister that the police commander bar his officers from going on leave so they could be available for several special operations planned by the government this year.
Chihuri said previous operations had failed to stop a thriving black market for basic commodities.
He wrote: ”Some of the activities the principals want us to stop, the normalcy they want us to restore can only be best restored by solving outstanding economic issues. Without normalising the economy, all we can do is put stop-gap measures.”
Chihuri said the refusal by the army to provide the police with extra manpower to help carry out government operations had left the police overstretched, forcing the law enforcement agency to ”abandon normal police work”.
Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said on Wednesday he was too busy to follow up on the matter and asked to be contacted next week. Mohadi was not immediately available for comment.
Several strategic state institutions have in recent years been placed in the hands of either serving or former military officers. For example, the Grain Marketing Board, tasked to feed the nation, is headed by former army colonel Samuel Muvuti, while retired air force commodore Mike Karakadzai is general manager of the National Railways of Zimbabwe.
A former military intelligence official, Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, is the Attorney General and former army colonel and High Court Judge George Chiweshe chairs the Zimbabwe Electoral Supervisory Commission.
Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has spawned hyperinflation and shortages of food, fuel, essential medicines, hard cash and just about every basic commodity. – ZimOnline