THE country’s police force is set for a major shake-up as
the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Affairs has come up with a new
roadmap which contains a raft of measures that will see some police officers
going for re-training and re-orientation programmes in a bid to improve
professionalism in the force.
The ministry said in a bid to curtail corruption, Treasury
had been tasked to closely monitor police fines from the public and would
retain much of this revenue.
A new training schedule is being drawn up to infuse
professionalism throughout the force and improve officers’ general interactions
with the public.
In addition, only top cops will get personal issue
vehicles, with non-critical departments surrendering their cars to
crime-fighting and other response units.
Drones and other technologies will also be used to counter
smuggling; and electronic passports will be introduced to enhance travellers’
security.
The reforms are in the Home Affairs and Cultural Affairs
Ministry’s 100-day plan which feeds into President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s
overarching economic strategy.
Fines collected by police have traditionally been remitted
to Treasury, but the ZRP asked to retain a huge chunk to oil operations and
this reportedly enmeshed the force in rampant corruption, which, in turn,
cultivated crude relations with the citizenry.
The 2018 National Budget Statement shows that police
collected US$38,28 million in fees and fines between January and September
2017.
Home Affairs Minister Dr Obert Mpofu told The Sunday Mail
last week that corruption was intolerable and Acting Police
Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga had been tasked to implement the roadmap.
“We have submitted a plan to Cabinet on what we intend to
do over the first 100 days and it was approved. We are now working to ensure
that we implement these goals over the 100 days and it is our intention to
achieve these targets. I have no doubt that it will be achieved.
“I have directed all officers in the ministry to focus on
these goals for the first 100 days. On policing, we have already started with
the reduction of roadblocks and we have directed police to focus on policing.
We had noticed that roadblocks had become the source of rampant corruption as
they were being set up without following proper procedures.”
Dr Mpofu also said: “We have been addressing the issue of
corruption for some time now and Acting Commissioner-General Matanga is leading
that reorientation following the meeting I had with the (police) commanders. He
is implementing the roadmap towards professionalising the police services.
“There will be provincial visits followed by workshops to
deal with areas of weakness and to encourage officers to focus on professional
behaviour when executing their duties. There will also be retraining of
officers, some of whom joined the force a long time ago and may need
retraining. Further, we will also invite resource people from outside (the
force) to conduct workshops on proper decorum of officers.”
On remitting fines to Treasury, he said: “It has always
been part of how police operate: police retain a certain amount of money while
the rest is remitted to Treasury. We will now be strictly monitoring this to
ensure that the regulations are followed to the (letter).
“We had cases where individuals were taking advantage of
this dispensation and not remitting what was due to Treasury; we will make sure
we put a stop to this. . . We are plugging all loopholes for corruption through
measures that I cannot disclose to the public to ensure that there is minimal
occurrence of corruption.”
Dr Mpofu said border security will be tightened to avert
smuggling, which has, for instance, seen Zimbabwe lose gold worth US$500
million yearly.
Authorities will equip the Police Minerals and Border
Control Unit with modern surveillance technology.
“We are intensifying border controls to minimise leakage of
our resources which is costing the country millions of dollars every year. In
addition, we are increasing both land and air patrols and will deploy modern
methods of monitoring movements on our borders such as use of drones. Liaison
with our fellow security service organisations will continue to ensure we
minimise smuggling.”
Dr Mpofu said Government will soon introduce e-passports as
part of measures to modernise and enhance the security of travel documents.
An e-passport, also known as biometric passport, is a
traditional travel document with an embedded electronic chip containing the
holder’s biometric information.
It is already being used in other African countries such as
Kenya.
“At the Registrar-General’s Office, we are modernising by
introducing modern technologies to register. We intend to computerise the
entire system and minimise manual recording of certificates. We also plan to
roll out e-passports as part of our 100-day plan.” Sunday Mail
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