People have bitter mouths..you only want to talk about bad things

Harare: Zimbabwe Police Commissioner-General  Augustine Chihuri yesterday fired a salvo at people criticising high police presence on national roads, saying such people had sinister intentions.

Government officials and the public have raised alarm over the excessive number of roadblocks on highways and in some instances within cities. Dr Chihuri said police were only carrying out their constitutional mandate and neither did they formulate the law, nor did they assemble vehicles.

Speaking at the commissioning of new housing units at ZRP Support Unit Changadzi in Chimanimani yesterday, Dr Chihuri said police were on the highways to protect the public. He said police did not formulate laws, but only enforced the same to ensure compliance and maintain order.

“People have bitter mouths,” he said. “You only want to talk about the bad things without acknowledging the good things that are being done. This is so because we have evil intentions within ourselves which cloud our minds not to see good things. We know as the police we are being criticised about roadblocks and so on.

“The roads are there. They were not constructed by the police. The vehicles are there, they were not assembled by the police. The laws are there, they were not formulated and enacted by the police.”

Dr Chihuri said a lot happened on the roads. “Some people get killed in road accidents and so forth,” he said.

 “All these things are not being done by the police, but you hear grown-up people criticising the police heavily as if Zimbabwe is the only country that has cops on the roads. Why are you so much afraid of the police on the roads,” he added. state media