‘ZRP has always been proactive on corruption’
MEASURES to deal with corruption in the Zimbabwe Republic Police have always existed and no officer from headquarters has been deployed to any part of the country to deal with the vice, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba has said.
Snr Asst Com Charamba, who is the force’s chief spokesperson, yesterday said zero tolerance to corruption had always been a cardinal rule of police operations.
She said this following a visit by a team of reporters to the police headquarters inquiring on how the force was dealing with corruption. This followed a series of stories that were written in the media without seeking a comment from the police. There was also a misconception from the journalists who visited the police headquarters that the force was not doing anything to curb corruption.
Snr Asst Com Charamba said the reports painted a picture that the police had of late deployed investigations officers to various parts of the country to deal with rampant corruption in its rank and file.
She also said it was not true that the ZRP internal investigations department regularly briefs Police Commissioner-General Dr Augustine Chihuri.
“Measures have always been in place to deal with corruption and they are not new in any way,” she said.
“The force always deals with any case of misconduct as per norm and no officers from the police investigations department have been deployed countrywide as reported. Police have always been deployed countrywide to deal with all malperformances without deploying officers from the police headquarters.”
Snr Asst Com Charamba continued: “Zero tolerance against corruption has always been continuous, strengthened by new strategies and tact. Officers performing various duties are always supervised to ensure that they comply with set standards.
The internal investigations unit which has been erroneously referred to as having been deployed countrywide is actually a unit that deals with all cases of misconduct, and the section has continuously devised strategies to deal with any form of misconduct and do not report to the CommissionerGeneral.”
Snr Asst Com Charamba urged members of the public to report all cases of corruption to officers in charge commanding districts or officers commanding provinces or the national complaints desk at police headquarters.
She said Dr Chihuri had always spoken against corruption as evidenced by the fact that all individuals caught on the wrong side of the law have been dismissed from the force.
She warned members of the public against offering bribes to police officers at roadblocks, saying such practices fuelled corruption.