Back to Index

ZimRights' position on Police Commissioner General Office
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights)
February 13, 2012

Guided by democratic principles and from experiences under the tenure of Police Commissioner General Chihuri (formerly the office bearer); human rights campaigners suggest that he be retired and the office given to someone else. In a democracy, it should be common sense that leaders come and go and that it the purpose of erecting office terms. Secondly, Mr Chihuri has demonstrated that he is not the right person for the job. He failed to rescue many Zimbabweans whose rights were violated during his term. Apart from failing to bring to book the perpetrators of the 2008 electoral violence, he could not command his team to deal with hooligans who disrupted the constitution's All-Stakeholders Conference and those who disrupted the public hearing on the Human Rights Commission Bill and the Electoral Amendment Bill. Apart from that, his conduct generally has been somehow political. His declaration to supporting a political party has rendered his services unfit and inappropriate for someone in his office.

While we appreciate the reported recent developments that the principals indicated that the Police Service Commission must be regularised first; so that it makes recommendations of potential candidates to the President and that the appointment shall be in line with the Constitution (i.e. in consultation with the Prime Minister and deputy), we reiterate that Chihuri is far from being a potential candidate thus no recommendations on him shall be viewed as being done in the best interest of civilians.

Meanwhile we extend our appreciation to the said recent agreements reached by the principals on other areas of concern. Notable among them are, the agreement to reconstitute the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), amending the heavily abused section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, reforming the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), and embarking on a land audit in order to validate the gains of the land reform programme and ascertain the level of productivity on farms. Once again, those are exceptionally good deals but we demand that they amplify them with action. Most of such projects have died on implementations.

Visit the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP