'Underfunding fuelling police corruption'

CHAIRPERSON of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs, Levy Mayihlome has said police officers have become corrupt because their parent ministry is underfunded to meet their needs.

Mayihlome said this on Monday during the 2022 post-budget seminar in Harare.

In his 2022 national budget statement presentation last week, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube allocated $49,4 billion and $61,5 billion to the Home Affairs and Defence and War Veterans ministries, respectively.

But Mayihlome said this was not enough to maintain law and order in the country.

"We always take peace for granted.  Due to lack of funding, we have caused our police officers to be very corrupt.

"Unfortunately, that is now creeping into other uniformed forces.  We have not been adequately funding our security sector for many years.

"A stitch in time saves nine. We have created big holes because we are not funding the security sector and we are ashamed to talk about it. I think that is an important sector because without peace and security, there is no development. Peace is the foundation of development" Mayihlome said.

In his budget statement, Ncube said it was imperative to fund the security sector to execute its mandate.

He said a programme towards procurement of operational vehicles was underway, targeting 920 vehicles with additional ones to be purchased in 2022.

"Government has embarked on upgrading and rehabilitation of infrastructure of the security sector whose implementation will be further enhanced in 2022, leveraging on their in-house expertise among other quick win implementation modalities," Ncube said.