Two senior cops get jobs back

IN 30 years, Zimbabwe did not experience an Executive Presidential transition.

A largely smooth transition did come, but a few gremlins found their way into the system and exposed a nation’s “lack of experience” in changing the guard.

On Friday, Zimbabweans awoke to the news that 30 senior members of the police force had been retired. Yesterday, that number was down to 11.

Now, it has emerged that another two — Senior Assistant Commissioner Douglas Nyakutsikwa and Snr Asst Comm Erasmus Makodza — had wrongly been placed on the retirement list.

Yesterday, Secretary for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Mr George Charamba said such things were bound to arise with a change in administration.

A margin of the error, he conceded, was attributable to over-reaction on the part of some officials to the notion of a “new dispensation”.

“The Police Service Commission is the employer. In the light of negative feedback about the conduct of some members of the police force, the commission reacted and decided to respond to people’s concerns.

“They cleared some names with the President and then went overboard in intervening in what is a very sensitive security arm of the State, and ended up throwing out the baby with the bath water,” Mr Charamba said.

Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah, as chair of the Public Service Commission, chairs the Police Service Commission under the umbrella of the Uniformed Forces Service Commissions Agency.

Yesterday, Mr Charamba said President Emmerson Mnangagwa had intervened before he travelled to Zambia last week, but an announcement had been made to the effect that nearly three dozen senior cops had been put to pasture. “It was an error by the commission. Such things happen at the change of an administration, and we must always budget for over-reaction, and steps and mis-steps.

“The key thing is to bring the train back on the rails with minimum disruption and this is what the administration has done.”