Monday, 19 October 2015

We Want Community Friendly Police

By Nick Mangwana


My column in the Herald has limited space. I am contracted to write between 1400-1600 words. This limits the space on what I can say. However it's long enough to keep the reader interested. In some respects it is considered way too long. I always share a joke where I accuse those readers of the column that interact with me of laziness.  So my last week's instalment was limited by the space again. Add the fact that I actually feel more unstrained talking to my fellow party comrades in through this paper. You see the Herald speaks for the government but here I speak to those people with whom I share the same Zanu PF Totem. So the language used in the same family is more audacious than in a market full of aliens.  Here my fellow comrades demand candour. They demand that we pull no punches. Remember the People's Voice is "Fearless and Bold". So in the same context we will continue the theme of the shortcomings of our police.

When I came to Zimbabwe 2 weeks ago, I was coming for the funeral of my nephew, my sister's last born who tragically took his own  life by hanging.  My elder brother was told that  our nephew had committed suicide when he was in Harare, and immediately travelled to Chivi where the incident happened a distance of 388 km if one uses the shortest route possible. When he got there my nephew had been cut down by the police but the noose was still in situ! His mother and siblings could not remove the noose in order not to interfere with the scene lest police rule there was foul play suspected. Now my comrades imagine the distress the family felt being subjected to this scene. They couldn't cover him (Talent was his name) again in order to preserve the scene. They could not remove the offending noose for the same reason so they just waited for the police to return and guide. And you know something else? The police did not return. The noose was only removed at the mortuary during the preparation of the body! Look, I am not taking my grief on the police. I know how to deal with that without blaming others for my family tragedy. I just don't want other families out there to experience this type of insensitively and lack of human touch from our police force.

If this was a one-off incident then one would just assume it was the ineptitude of a particular police team in Chivi. No it is not. How many times have seen bodies of deceased loved ones sprawled on the ground after an accident with the police "chilling" around? This is before any next of keen has been informed. A clearly identifiable body is exposed to the public. And the public which now seem to have a fetish for dead body pictures would be snapping away with camera-phones . There would be a rush to publish these photos on social media platforms first before anyone else.  These are some of the downsides of having citizen journalists. They are not bound by any code of ethics. It's simply anything goes. However it is the duty of the police to preserve the dignity of the deceased by cordoning off the site and ban anyone from taking pictures because until ruled otherwise that site is a potential crime scene.

I have no axe to grind with the police but having been born and grew up during the Liberation Struggle I have an understanding why we had a lot of respect for vanaMukoma and hated Mapuruvheya and Madzakutsaku. We always considered vanaMukoma as allies. They were friendly, they were warm and helpful. Our parents were always saluted as ' vabereki'. Compare that to Mapuruvheya! They were so cruel ,hard hearted and rude. There was even a song that went along these lines, " Mupuruvheya moyo wako idombo. Baba namai vakapiswa nemoto...." I find it difficult to translate that because I don't know how to explain what a Mupuruvheya was. But suffice to say they  were some sort of police attached to the District Administrators hence they were known as DAs.  I am sure they were some sort  of Rural District Council Police. I will put my email address for those who know better to correct me should I be wrong or to agree with me should I be right.

But I digress. These people were so cruel that they were hated by the population. They were a scourge. So were Muzorewa's  Pfumo reVanhu whom we all knew as Madzakutsaku or Auxillaries. They had no regard for the population. They were another menace. They were insensitive. You couldn't begin to compare them with those friendly and charming Zanla Commissars who boosted the morale (Morare) of the population. They had support of the population because of their attitudes and demeanour. But the Puruvheyas and Dzakutsakus were different.

Now the reader is beginning to wonder where this is going? Is it not clear enough nhai? The Zimbabwean police does not expect the ZRP to behave like Mapuruvheya or Madzakutsaku! They expect the Republic Police to be courteous, helpful and sensitive.  They expect the attitude which the Zanla Commissars had, to be brought into today's policing. If that is done the police would never lack information. They would never find a need to torture anyone for information for every member of the community would act as their Mujibha or Chimbwido, always ready to help, always ready to inform. We want our police to be fit for purpose. At the moment this is questionable.

Pamberi neZanu PF


Pamberi naanaMukoma

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