Zimpapers Logo

Freeman Razemba Crime Reporter
Government is making frantic efforts to address all the challenges being faced by the Zimbabwe Republic Police to ensure that it fully discharges its constitutional mandate of maintaining law and order in the country, Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga has said.

Addressing officers at Morris Depot in Harare on Wednesday, Comm-Gen Matanga said the challenges including shortages of vehicles, fuel, stationery, printing equipment and computer consumables.

“May I take this opportunity to advise you that efforts are being made to address these challenges,” he said. To this end, some representations have been made to Treasury and are being considered.

“The commitment being shown by the authorities to remedy our situation is quite encouraging and, indeed, a source of comfort. I, therefore, have no doubt that sooner rather than later, our circumstances will be a lot better.”

Comm-Gen Matanga said his vision was centred on the effective discharge of their mandate as enunciated in Section 219 of the Constitution.

He said police officers should exhibit a high level of professionalism, dedication and duty consciousness throughout their engagement and interaction with the public.

“Amongst ourselves, we should resist the urge to engage in unnecessary competition,” said Comm-Gen Matanga. “We should instead, promote teamwork and unity of purpose. It should never escape our minds that as an organisation, together we are as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Let us complement each other’s effort.”

Comm-Gen Matanga said the force was a learning organisation that firmly believes in seeking prominence and relevance in the ever-mutating policing terrain.

He said what was required of them in the dynamic world was for them to continuously scan their own internal environment so that they matched blow for blow all the challenges presented to them by the ever evolving external environment.

“This realisation explains the ongoing restructuring exercise, which of necessity, will result in some posts being abolished and some sections being thinned or merged as dictated by circumstances,” said Comm-Gen Matanga.

“This entails taking hard and to some extent painful decisions, but all is being done in the best interests of the organisation. We definitely need more police officers on the ground for operational work.”

Comm-Gen Matanga said all displaced officers will be redeployed and no one would be made redundant.
Depot Commandant Senior Assistant Commissioner Martha Mofolo applauded Comm-Gen Matanga for the visit and briefed him on the developments at the depot.

She said they had about 1 040 police recruits at the depot undergoing a one-year training programme.
The meeting was attended by Senior Assistant Commissioners Charity Charamba, Elliot Mind Ngirandi and Bernard Dumbura and officers from Morris Depot.