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Graft not the only police problem
Mavis Makuni, Financial Gazette (Harare)
January 17, 2008

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=2011

In a speech to mark the official opening of the 2008 legal year, Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Maphios Cheda, made a familiar call on the need to stamp out corruption in the police force.

He said while the police were to be commended for their general devotion to duty, which had resulted in the reduction of the crime rate within the region, corruption was still a cancer within the force. Said the judge: "However, while a lot has been done by the police, there is still more to be done, particularly in those areas that relate to traffic offences. It is now common knowledge that most police officers manning roadblocks are now concentrating on public transporters and foreign-registered vehicles."

The reason was obvious, said Justice Cheda. The culprits were doing it to get foreign currency to supplement their meagre earnings. "While we live in difficult economic times, it is important that those who are charged with public duties should not unlawfully enrich themselves to the prejudice of the public fiscus." I have no problem with the judge warning traffic police not to take bribes at roadblocks or demanding payment from motorists for dubious offences. I just happen to think this is now a tired theme that has been repeated ad nauseam over the years.

I am not saying the misdemeanours of traffic policemen should be condoned. I am simply saying such themes should not be used exclusively in speeches by government and judiciary officials to avoid speaking out on the more serious charges levelled against the police force. These include police brutality and selective interpretation and enforcement of the law, which are a serious problem, particularly as the country prepares to hold harmonized elections in March.

The selective enforcement of the law has been exposed in the past through complaints by opposition parties and civic groups over the problems they face in trying to obtain police clearance and authorization to hold rallies or peaceful demonstrations. The police have been accused of outright bias in this regard in that while they would never dream of banning a ruling party rally or meeting, they will do everything in their power to thwart attempts by other groups to enjoy the same freedom of speech and assembly. Opposition parties have complained in the past about meetings or rallies previously cleared by the police being banned at the last minute for tenuous reasons.

The most famous of these fabricated excuses is that the police do not have enough manpower and the almost mystical one of police having "reason to believe" that the holding of an event would lead to a breach of the peace. Some events organised by opposition and civic groups have indeed led to a breach of the peace -- by the police themselves when they have unleashed violence on unarmed citizens. Before the battering of Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Lovemore Madhuku of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in March last year, the police had perpetrated similar atrocities against trade union leaders towards the end of 2006. And despite the worldwide condemnation that the attack on opposition politicians sparked last year, the police subsequently subjected a group of lawyers, including the president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, Beatrice Mtetwa, to similar abuse. On all these occasions, the judiciary, which is supposed to be the custodian of the law, reacted with thunderous silence.

It is ironic that the harmonised elections should be held in March, which is the anniversary of one of the darkest periods in the country's political history. This is when opposition and civil society organisation leaders referred to above were battered by the police after being arrested at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield in Harare. They had gone there to attend a prayer meeting of the Save Zimbabwe Campaign. The brutal handiwork of Zimbabwe's police force was displayed throughout the world when the swollen faces, bandaged heads and broken bodies of the victims, who included women activists, were splashed in newspapers and on television screens.

The hypocrisy of the police in banning events organised by opposition parties and civil society groups while allowing those of the ruling party to go ahead was demonstrated most clearly in the run-up to the ZANU PF special congress held in December last year. During that period, war veterans organised a series of marches to show solidarity with President Robert Mugabe in his quest to win endorsement as the ruling party's presidential candidate in the harmonised elections. These events culminated in the million-man march in the capital city.

Suddenly, the police, who have been known to treat a peaceful demonstration by small numbers of members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) pressure group like a major disturbance calling for the deployment of the riot squad, were suddenly ready to co-operate and cope with the much bigger procession.

This partisan approach within the police force is unethical and unprofessional and should be among unacceptable practices to be regularly condemned by public officials such as judges. But what happens because of the abnormal political culture prevailing in this country is that officials choose "safe" subjects and themes when they speak in public so as to avoid rocking the boat. They seem to forget that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good men and women to remain silent.

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