HARARE: Buhera South Member of Parliament Cde Joseph Chinotimba says police in his area must be given vehicles so that they can control the movement of buses as some are now travelling at night resulting in people being attacked by hyenas while trying to catch the buses.
When told by Deputy Home Affairs Minister Mark Madiro that the government was handicapped by lack of resources and could not therefore provide police with adequate vehicles, Chinotimba said his case must be treated like a national disaster just like the government had declared in Harare following the outbreak of cholera.
“The Minister has stated that the government has no money but whenever we have a national disaster such as cholera, the government brings in a lot of money to fight the cholera,” Chinotimba said.
“As far as I am concerned, attacks by hyenas on people is also a disaster. It needs to be declared a national disaster by the government so that the police in Buhera can be given cars to patrol the area.
“That is why I would like the minister to explain the difference – when there is a cholera outbreak and it is declared a national disaster, we have business people such as donors and Econet who assist, why can the government not do the same and source transport from the same people?”
Madiro said the problem was much bigger than that.
He said police needed at least 7 000 vehicles to operate effectively but currently they had about 1 000 vehicles. This meant that they had a deficit of 6 000 to operate effectively.
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