Here is a quick guide why the Zimbabwe Police leadership was
not part of the security forces press conference on Monday.
The Status Quo Benefits the Police
Some people have joked that the police should now be renamed
to Zimbabwe Revenue Police. Ideally any revenue that the police collect should
be passed on to the Consolidated Revenue Fund at the Treasury but that is no
longer the case as the police now retain all the monies. We all know that
Zimbabwe has been a police state from the colonial times. Now the police
commanders not only commands the brute police force but now they are in charge
of all the revenue that the police now collects. At Beitbridge border there is
a police post where all the border jumpers are required to pay a fine of R320
or US$20 and that money goes straight to the police. A bus I boarded from
Pretoria to Harare on 2 October 2017 about 75% of the passengers had to pay
that fine to the police. It is estimated that between 50 and 100 buses cross
from South Africa into Zimbabwe each day and you can see how lucrative this is
for the police. A mere 50 metres from
the border gate, there is the first traffic check point where all the cross
border buses get stopped to pay the spot fine for being behind time. Obviously because
of the delays at the border post each and every bus has to pay that spot fine
as they cant stick to their official time table.
From Beitbridge to Harare if you travel during the day, you
can encounter over 15 police check points. At each and every check point the
police will charge motorists spot fines for various traffic offences. During October 2017, I was going to Zimbabwe
every week and I was once given a lift by a police officer from Beitbridge to
Harare. The officer told me that they had daily targets to meet and that is why
they never caution a motorist and for
any traffic offence they must collect a fine. My house about 18km from Harare
city, there is at least 5 traffic check points along that short distance. If you
board a minibus taxi even though legally they are only allowed to have 15
passengers, they can fit between 18 to 22 passengers per journey. What happens
is that each morning they pay the spot fines to the police and they use those
ticket receipts for the whole day. So in Harare and across the country, you
will find the overcrowded and clearly not roadworthy commuter taxis moving around each day and the
police are not bothered as long as they have collected the fines for the day. In
my view these fines are actually just taxes that the police charges for their
own use. Zimbabwe being generally a peaceful country, a lot of the police
officers are sent to collect revenue for the police.
We all know that Zimbabwe is now a failed state. From the
little revenue that the Government gets, they try to prioritise the military
but clearly due to the economic policies of the regime as well as the lack of
rule of law there is no new investment in the country hence the government is
living on borrowed time. Ordinary soldiers even though they get their salaries
paid first ahead of all other civil servants, they still have to go and queue
at the banks where there is no cash. Contrast this with the police; whilst the
police officers are collecting fines for their bosses, they also get bribes. In
government hospitals there are even shortages of penicillin but we can see
police officers moving around in their new Israeli made Anti-riot water tanks,
new Scania trucks and brand new ford pick-up trucks as they generate their own
revenue. From my brief stay in Zimbabwe, I discovered that the most hated group
of people where the police officers, the first lady, Jonathan Moyo and his G40.
To borrow a statement coined by Secretary Hillary Clinton. I would also term
all these group of people as a basket of deplorables. Ordinary citizens now commends people who run
away from the traffic police.
A look at the leadership of the police
Many years ago, a childhood friend who was working in the
police protection unit which is a police unit tasked with protecting VIPs told
me that the core bodyguards for Mugabe are made up mainly of his close
relatives. Six years ago Mugabe promoted Innocent Matibiri a close relative to
be the deputy Commissioner General and is now in charge of operations in the
Zimbabwe police. So the current police leadership also has a vested personal
interest in the status quo.
In conclusion
It’s no secret that the majority of the people will welcome
a military coup but that will not be the solution. Also a Munangagwa’s
presidency is not the answer. Some of us who grew up in Kwekwe where Munangagwa
was the Zanu-PF member of Parliament witnessed the violence in the 1985 and
1990 general elections. We urgently need a National Transitional Authority in
Zimbabwe as no meaningful election can be held in Zimbabwe. We must avoid the
route that Egypt took after the demise of the Mubarak’s regime. I also watched Gwede
Mantashe ANC Secretary General’s statement on Zimbabwe. May I remind ANC
government and all the neighbouring countries that after former President Thabo
Mbeki’s role in aiding and abetting the Mugabe’s regime in subverting the will
of Zimbabwe people from the 2000 election. As Morgan Tsvangirai said Zimbabwe
is no longer a foreign affairs issue for South Africa but it is now a domestic
issue. The current ANC government should own up and help to solve this issue
before it disintergrates further. One can read the Kamphepe report on the 2002
Zimbabwe presidential election compiled by former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke
and Judge Sisi Kamphepe on how the elections were stolen https://mg.co.za/article/2014-11-14-khampepe-zimbabwes-2002-elections-not-free-and-fair
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