Dear Commissioner General Godwin Matanga
It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter, to your reputable office, Commissioner-General.
Firstly, I wouldn’t want to expend vast editorial space, and in this regard, I will go straight to my point:
The small Midlands town of Redcliff is up in flames!
This- at the expense of your officers, deployed to save and protect the people, Commissioner General Matanga.
Most of the excesses of the police officers from the station usually go unreported and I humbly shoulder that responsibility of letting the proverbial cat out of the bag!
Reports indicate that corruption, bribery, wanton intimidation of residents and rampant abuse of office by the police officers from ZRP Redcliff have now reached imponderable levels with an immediate solution needed, now or never.
Commissioner General, do you still remember what President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, who appointed you to that glitzy and venerated police office you currently hold- once said during his inaugural speech on the 26th of August in 2018?
He said, as quoted below:
“We must, as a society, encourage and inculcate the culture of hard honest work.”
Before then, and in the aftermath of Operation Restore Legacy which ushered in the Second Republic, the same President Emmerson Mnangagwa who entrusted you with the powers to handle the policing service in our country, had said in a State of the Nation Address:
“Corruption remains the major source of some of the problems we face as a country and its retarding impact on national development cannot be overemphasised… On individual cases of corruption, every case must be investigated and punished in accordance with the dictates of our laws. There should be no sacred cows. My government will have zero tolerance towards corruption and this has already begun.”
Wait a moment, Commissioner General Matanga, were you also not the one who said- during the establishment of the Police Anti-corruption Unit (PACU) a couple of years ago- that:
“It is thus incumbent upon you to give new impetus to all existing anti-corruption strategies and a lot more that the organisation shall continue to devise with a view to rid the organisation of all bad apples. Let no dirty be swept under the carpet.”
Commissioner General Matanga, it is quite pitiful that your subordinates who constitute the ZRP Redcliff Police Station appear to be operating in diametric contrast to the wishes of the one who appointed you.
Stinking police malpractices are going untackled and the carpet has a lot of dirt, Commissioner General.
Corrupt tendencies of the officers appear to be spearheaded by a one Chiwara, who is an officer-in-charge at the station. It is an open secret that Chiwara has entered into unholy coalitions with some pub owners to flagrantly flout the stipulated COVID-19 regulations at the expense of the public.
At one drinking hole, located a few kilometers from the central business district, Chiwara and some ‘influential’ cops from the station are believed to be stuffing their pockets with the elusive green-colored United States dollars.
A US$200-per-week-deal that allows the pub owners to operate beyond the curfew hours is underway in the dormitory town.
Rumor has it that Chiwara and company are responsible for the violent clashes typifying the imbibing joint in question (name supplied) since our area is also populated with some illegal gold miners, notoriously known for the machete wars plaguing the Midlands and other provinces in the country.
As part of that deal, junior police officers are tasked with clamping down on other night clubs, harassing imbibers on the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic.
Commissioner-General, note that the above-mentioned O.I.C was spotted participating at a pool tournament at the same bar located close to ZISCO Club.
The tournament spanned from the evening to the wee hours of the following day.
Yet, at a certain drinking hole, staffers and patrons are continuously harassed on a daily basis.
Mandatory Credit: Photo by AARON UFUMELI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (10363059h)
ng other issues.
Information at hand indicates that the proprietor of the bar in question turned down the officer-in-charge’s calls for a ‘deal’ that would exempt his pub from subscribing to the existing statutory instruments with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.
We would be grateful, as Redcliff residents, if you institute investigations in this matter and take punitive measures that would deter would-be perpetrators of corruption from engaging in such practices.
Residents from Redcliff suburbs such as Rutendo and Torwood are ambushed and arrested by the cops who continue to abuse COVID-19 regulations for their selfish ends. They treat service delivery as largely secondary to the filthy bribes that they take from the residents.
There are quite a whole lot of issues going on, and all we can say is- PLEASE INTERVENE AND SERVE THE PEOPLE OF REDCLIFF TOWN.
Yours Traumatised Redcliff Resident
Chigaba Chigaba, TORWOOD
