Chihuri not substantive Police Commissioner - TsvangiraI

There is currently no substantive Police Commisioner general and rumours that Augustine Chihuri has been reappointed are not true and are therefore misleading, President Tsvangirai has said.

At a press conference in Harare today, President Tsvangirai said during the meeting with principals, wide ranging issues were discussed and agreed on with Robert Mugabe and Arthur Mutambara, and now await implementation.

Doing a run down of the agreed issues, Prof. Mutambara said there are procedures that need to be taken before a commissioner general is appointed.

"The Police Service Commission must be regularised so that it makes recommendations of potential candidates to the President. The Principals agreed that in line with the Constitution, the President would then consult and agree with the Prime Minister on the next Commissioner General of Police," said Prof. Mutambara.

Contracts of some of the members of the police service commission expired in December 2011 and that needs to be regularised before the commission can recommend names for appointment to the post of Police Commissioner General. Chihuri is therefore acting Commissioner General.

Prof Mutambara said the three principals agreed that political statements made by service chiefs must be left to politicians and those within the security forces who make political statements must be dealt with as their statements undermine civilian authority.

"An officer in the security forces who makes political statements undermines the civilian government in place and should be reprimanded for making such statements," he said.

Prof Mutambara said it was agreed that there was need for electoral reforms to take place if the next elections are to be free, fair and credible.

He said the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission needs to be resourced for it to produce results. "The objective is that the next election outcome is not challenged. So resources need to be put in place if we are going to get results, and we hope the issue of violence will be resolved once this bill is adopted," said Prof Mutambara.

He said, the meeting earlier today, had deliberated on the need for a report on the status of the constitution making process from the management committee to ensure that the next elections are process driven.

"Though the ultimate deadline is March 2013, the Principals want a report on the constitution making process from the Management Committee with estimated time frames of all the issues that require implementation," he said.

Prof Mutambara said it was agreed that there be media reforms and that the Mass Media Trust Board, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Board and Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe Board be regularised. What it means is that the Minister of Information will have to regularise the illegally constituted boards. Responding to a question pertaining to this issue, President Tsvangirai said decisions made by these boards must therefore be reversed.

Professor Mutambara discouraged hate speech which he said had flooded both public and private media which he added is detrimental to the development of the society.

"There is hate speech in the public media, there is hate speech in the private media, there is irresponsible journalism but now we need to think about what is good for the people of Zimbabwe. We are going to hold a no holds barred media indaba with all the editors to discuss how we can work together for the good of the people because media can influence society," he said.

He went on to say section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act needed to be revisited as it has been grossly abused. Section 121, when invoked, allows for a person to be kept in prison for seven days after which, when the state makes no appeal, the person can be granted bail. Many MDC activists have had their stay in prison prolonged after the state invoked this section.

Other issues that were discussed included the issue of doing a land utilisation audit to ensure productivity on the land; the issue of restrictive measures and the need to call for their lifting; the need to expand from economic stability to job creation and investment upliftment.

The meeting further agreed on the need for the council of ministers to meet regularly to report back on areas of implementation so that Cabinet assumes its original role of debating national policy.

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