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320 cops dismissed last year alone- Chombo
23 May 2016 at 02:13hrs | Views
Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo has told parliament that last year alone the force dismissed 320 police officers for stealing and abusing their offices at road blocks and other offices.
He was responding to Senator Sithembile Mlotshwa's question as to how his ministry regulate the number of road blocks per km?
"What is the purpose of them? Have you revised the strategy, seeing that you breeding are corruption by the issues that are written brought in the newspapers of bogus policemen and some of them manning road blocks?" she asked.
Chombo said the issue of police and road blocks has been with the nation for quite some time now.
"The police are doing a wonderful job under very difficult circumstances and I will be the first one to admit that out of all the 50 000 police officers that we have, some of them might not be forthright as you and me would want. Last year, we dismissed 320 police officers for stealing and abusing their offices at road blocks and other offices. So the police is keen to clean up those police officers who are contravening the laws that they are supposed to uphold," he said.
"To give you a little bit of comfort in terms of the activities on the road blocks. Road blocks are a legitimate exercise to make sure that the cars that we were talking about, the mushikashikas and illegal Combis are controlled. We also have a lot of cars that have recently come in, either stolen from Mozambique, Zambia or South Africa plying our roads. So, it is our duty to make sure that we apprehend the culprits. However, there are also other cars legitimately bought, but those have avoided paying tax at the boarder or have not yet been properly registered, that are plying our roads. So we want all those motorists to be accounted for."
Chombo said there is also another development on speed;they now have automatic cars that people are buying and they are driven at very high speeds so the need for the roadblocks is there.
"I have sufficiently justified it. However, there are issues in terms of the collection of fines on the spot. This has been raised; people are concerned about this that maybe some of the money is not reaching the Treasury as it is supposed to be. I want to inform this august House that there is actually a circular in Government whereby roadblocks will be manned by satelite so that from an office in Harare you can see what is happening at a roadblock in Tsholotsho and you can pay using the methods that the Hon. Senator has been talking about such as the cell phones," he said.
"There will not be any cash that will be exchanged; therefore the temptation for police officers to steal money will be reduced. So, I am really on your side, the issues you have raised are legitimate and give it a couple of weeks, it will be a thing of the past."
He was responding to Senator Sithembile Mlotshwa's question as to how his ministry regulate the number of road blocks per km?
"What is the purpose of them? Have you revised the strategy, seeing that you breeding are corruption by the issues that are written brought in the newspapers of bogus policemen and some of them manning road blocks?" she asked.
Chombo said the issue of police and road blocks has been with the nation for quite some time now.
"To give you a little bit of comfort in terms of the activities on the road blocks. Road blocks are a legitimate exercise to make sure that the cars that we were talking about, the mushikashikas and illegal Combis are controlled. We also have a lot of cars that have recently come in, either stolen from Mozambique, Zambia or South Africa plying our roads. So, it is our duty to make sure that we apprehend the culprits. However, there are also other cars legitimately bought, but those have avoided paying tax at the boarder or have not yet been properly registered, that are plying our roads. So we want all those motorists to be accounted for."
Chombo said there is also another development on speed;they now have automatic cars that people are buying and they are driven at very high speeds so the need for the roadblocks is there.
"I have sufficiently justified it. However, there are issues in terms of the collection of fines on the spot. This has been raised; people are concerned about this that maybe some of the money is not reaching the Treasury as it is supposed to be. I want to inform this august House that there is actually a circular in Government whereby roadblocks will be manned by satelite so that from an office in Harare you can see what is happening at a roadblock in Tsholotsho and you can pay using the methods that the Hon. Senator has been talking about such as the cell phones," he said.
"There will not be any cash that will be exchanged; therefore the temptation for police officers to steal money will be reduced. So, I am really on your side, the issues you have raised are legitimate and give it a couple of weeks, it will be a thing of the past."
Source - Byo24News
