Members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) who are deployed to monitor citizen compliance during the current national lockdown are unilaterally making rich pickings through bribes and other illicit ways, thereby fleecing nationals of their hard-earned monies and violating current regulations, a local pressure group has said.
According to the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-SA), ‘after receiving bribes, the police give a blind eye to people violating the Covid-19 regulations.’
“Corruption thus reverses all the gains made against the corona virus. This way corruption becomes an obstacle to the fight against the epidemic (sic),” said ACT-SA in its Corruption and Covid-19 Alert.
The organisation also said amongst some of the excesses of the police during the current national lockdown set to end tomorrow; businesses pay bribes to operate outside the gazetted times, motorists pay bribes to visit towns without giving valid reasons and that shebeen operators pay bribes to operate hassle free in apparent violation of the law.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said he will convene a review meeting with his two VPs Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi to decide on whether to extend the national lockdown or not. In his televised Independence Speech, Mnangagwa did not make mention of the extension of the three-week national lockdown.
Zwnews
