Govt to investigate racist ZRP officer

Government has said it will investigate a police officer from Matobo District of Matabeleland South who was found racially harassing white cyclists.

MDC-T Senator Sithembile Mlotshwa raised the matter on Thursday with Home Affairs deputy minister Ziyambi Ziyambi.

"I witnessed last week on my way to Matopo, a policeman harassing white men that were doing cycling as a group. They usually use the Matopos road to cycle. I just drove nearby because I wanted to hear what the policeman was saying," Mlotshwa said during Senate.

"The policeman was saying, ‘I have no tolerance for white people'. I can give you the time so that at least you can investigate, and it happened last week. I am saying, will we succeed the sport and tourism thing if we have an attitude towards some people that come for sports in our area?"

Ziyambi said they would need to investigate the regrettable incident.

"While it is regrettable that such a comment was made, we need to investigate that. However, I would like to say that with regards to tourism we are working closely with the Ministry of Hospitality and Tourism with a view of training our police officers so that they can handle those tourists who visit our country well, be hospitable and treat them nicely," Ziyambi said.

"With regards to our tourists, we are very sensitive in that particular area. We have some bibs which are written, ‘ZRP Tourism Policeman'. We want them when they see our tourists to greet them nicely and tell them about our country. It is a process that we are undertaking.

"However, I would like to say our police officers are very much behaved. I would say in the region, we have one of the best police officers. An isolated incident cannot then be ballooned to mean that the whole of our police force is not well behaved."