‘Don’t read The Zim’ – cops warned

The order, carried in an internal communication signal BM170/2007 to all police stations, has drawn howls of protest from several police officers, who are wondering where Chihuri was getting the discretionary powers considering that the Police Act does not carry such prohibitive clauses.
“With immediate effect, police officers should not be seen reading or carrying private newspapers while in uniform,” reads the memo. “Police station, district and provincial commanders should also make sure that members do not bring copies of the same to police stations. It has come to the attention of this office that most members get carried away with what they read in these newspapers, as evidenced by careless comments that have been made by some junior members.”
Police spokesman chief superintendent Oliver Mandipaka refused to comment on the matter.
Chihuri warns of dire consequences for defying his directive in the memo and urges Sergeant Majors at all police stations to effectively deal with excitable police officers who breach the directive.
“Failure to obey these directives will attract disciplinary action against the concerned members,” said Chihuri. “This is to guard the organisation’s image, which is being threatened by wayward officers.”
A police officer who spoke t us on condition of anonymity said: “I just love reading The Zimbabwean and Chihuri can never stop me from reading what I want through some silly instruction. I know he was not happy because the newspapers he is barring us from reading carried stories about the deportation of his children from Australia. He hates online publications because ZimDaily.com led the campaign to have his kid deported. It’s just sour grapes”
An Assistant Inspector said: “Chihuri is behaving as if we are his kids who he can tell what do to do or what to read and so on. Obviously no one takes him seriously anymore.”