Police in drive to recruit youth militia

The entry ?requirements have been lowered and this, critics say, is meant to absorb ?more Border Gezi youth militia graduates who have been steadily filling the ?rank and file of the police force over the years.??
While it cannot be disputed that thousands of police officers have left the ?force in search of greener pastures, creating vacancies, Saungweme says ?concern has been expressed that the target of 50 000 officers is too high ?for a force of normally around 20 000.
Following Mugabe’s election defeat in ?last years Presidential election it turned out that voting patterns within ?police stations favoured the victor Morgan Tsvangirai. Senior officers began ?victimisation campaigns against officers perceived to have voted for Tsvangirai and the MDC. Paradzayi Chinogureyi stationed at Ross Camp in ?Bulawayo for example was thrown out of his living quarters.??
In March this year police authorities claimed that since November 2008 they ?were failing to get new recruits interested in joining the force. As a ?result, a 6-month police training programme, which normally starts in ?January, failed to take off for the first time since independence in 1980, ?they said.
The country has two national training centres at Morris Depot in ?Harare, and Ntabazinduna just outside Bulawayo. Critics say there has been a ?dramatic decline in the standard of policing in the country and this was ?because of under-qualified militia youths who were grafted into the force to ?target opposition supporters.