Disgruntled police officers quit

BULAWAYO – Zimbabwe Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has said more than 10 per cent of the country’s police officers will quit within the first quarter of the year, disgruntled over poor salaries and working conditions.

In a confidential memo to the Minister of Home Affairs, Kembo Mohadi, dated January 2, 2007, Chihuri warned that an attempt to prevent the 3 500 mostly junior officers who have tendered resignations from leaving could spark open rebellion by the discontented cops who he said held “the government responsible for their suffering”. Zimbabwe has an estimated 26 000 police officers who, together with the army, are credited with keeping President Robert Mugabe’s government in power by brutally suppressing dissension in the face of an economic crisis that has spawned hyperinflation and shortages of food, fuel, electricity and every survival commodity.”The 3 500 represents the number of those whose applications have been approved, after they put in three months’ notices of their intentions to leave.This is a culmination of failed efforts by the junior members to have their salaries reviewed upwards in line with the country’s inflation rate,” said Chihuri in a two-page memo simply titled: Matter of Concern.All officers whose letters of resignation had so far been accepted will have left by between January 31 and March 31, Chihuri said.But the Police Commissioner added more letters of resignation were streaming in from officers with some giving only up to two weeks notice to quit their jobs.”Trying to stop the junior members from leaving has failed in the past and we cannot try it now, as it will only fuel rebellion within the junior members, who hold the government responsible for their suffering,” Chihuri added in the memo, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline.Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was not aware of Chihuri’s memo but confirmed officers were resigning for what he described as “various reasons” including old age.”As an organisation we do not stand in the way of anyone who wants to leave because they are not forced to work in the police force,” said Bvudzijena.Mohadi would not specifically discuss Chihuri’s memo but he insisted that the police force was affected by the economic crisis just like any other organization in the country and therefore it was normal that some of its members would quit to take up better paying jobs elsewhere.He added: “We are still going to recruit more officers though.I cannot reveal much on the numbers and dates of those that are quitting because it is a sensitive matter of national security.”But the exodus of officers is clear indication of increasing desperation in a key security organ that should be greatly worrying to Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party especially as sources told ZimOnline that lower ranking soldiers who earn the same salaries as junior police were also quitting in droves.”Most of the boys leaving the army just abscond without giving proper notice and many of them leave to join private security firms in neighbouring countries, particularly in Botswana and South Africa,” a captain at the army’s KG VI headquarters said.No official comment on reports that junior soldiers were deserting could be immediately obtained from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces headquarters in Harare.Political analysts rule out the possibility of well-paid top army generals staging a coup against Mugabe’s decades-old government.But they have always speculated that worsening hunger and economic hardships could at some point force the underpaid ordinary soldier and police officer to either openly revolt or to simply refuse to defend the government should Zimbabweans rise up in a civil rebellion.ZimOnlineZimbabwe has an estimated 26 000 police officers who, together with the army, are credited with keeping President Robert Mugabe’s government in power by brutally suppressing dissension in the face of an economic crisis that has spawned hyperinflation and shortages of food, fuel, electricity and every survival commodity.”The 3 500 represents the number of those whose applications have been approved, after they put in three months’ notices of their intentions to leave.This is a culmination of failed efforts by the junior members to have their salaries reviewed upwards in line with the country’s inflation rate,” said Chihuri in a two-page memo simply titled: Matter of Concern.All officers whose letters of resignation had so far been accepted will have left by between January 31 and March 31, Chihuri said.But the Police Commissioner added more letters of resignation were streaming in from officers with some giving only up to two weeks notice to quit their jobs.”Trying to stop the junior members from leaving has failed in the past and we cannot try it now, as it will only fuel rebellion within the junior members, who hold the government responsible for their suffering,” Chihuri added in the memo, a copy of which was shown to ZimOnline.Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was not aware of Chihuri’s memo but confirmed officers were resigning for what he described as “various reasons” including old age.”As an organisation we do not stand in the way of anyone who wants to leave because they are not forced to work in the police force,” said Bvudzijena.Mohadi would not specifically discuss Chihuri’s memo but he insisted that the police force was affected by the economic crisis just like any other organization in the country and therefore it was normal that some of its members would quit to take up better paying jobs elsewhere.He added: “We are still going to recruit more officers though.I cannot reveal much on the numbers and dates of those that are quitting because it is a sensitive matter of national security.”But the exodus of officers is clear indication of increasing desperation in a key security organ that should be greatly worrying to Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party especially as sources told ZimOnline that lower ranking soldiers who earn the same salaries as junior police were also quitting in droves.”Most of the boys leaving the army just abscond without giving proper notice and many of them leave to join private security firms in neighbouring countries, particularly in Botswana and South Africa,” a captain at the army’s KG VI headquarters said.No official comment on reports that junior soldiers were deserting could be immediately obtained from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces headquarters in Harare.Political analysts rule out the possibility of well-paid top army generals staging a coup against Mugabe’s decades-old government.But they have always speculated that worsening hunger and economic hardships could at some point force the underpaid ordinary soldier and police officer to either openly revolt or to simply refuse to defend the government should Zimbabweans rise up in a civil rebellion.ZimOnline