Where is the SIS in this whole equation when robbers that include foreigners are wreaking havoc? How does immigration department explain the involvement of foreigners operating in cohorts with some notorious Malawian thieves? Ideally SIS should be able to anticipate and forewarn the police about impending crime based on movements of people particularly strange people, complained a former SIS officer who served during the one party regime.
Strangely, a serving SIS officer in Lilongwe dismissed his departments involvement in crime detection saying their role is strictly to hunt for political enemies of the President by tapping on their phones, reading their mail and diverting their emails and maintaining surveillance.
Our duty is to tap phones, read emails and letters, lay surveillance on political leaders both in government and the opposition alike.our detail does not include looking for hardcore criminals and we cannot help the police thats their responsibility, boasted a senior officer at the regional office of the SIS.
Rumor is meanwhile rife in towns of Blantyre, Mzuzu, Lilongwe and Zomba suggesting that most of the banditry activities have two new dimensions, on one hand it is believed that police officers themselves are involved hence the recent cases of killing suspects to destroy evidence.
The second theory on the other hand is about the foreign component involving largely Zimbabweans, Burundians, Nigerians and Chinese nationals.
It seems it is now more than true that most of the daring criminal activities have foreign component and most of these are coordinated by ex-combatants who are all over Malawi using Malawian passports.
They plan and strategize while Malawians show the way.a Malawian would not walk into a bank at 12 and later think about hiring a boat, thats sophistication. There is also the involvement of several young CID officers and some very senior officers.you can judge them by the quality of life they live its beyond their means, explained a recently retired senior police man who claimed that he has names of the individuals involved.
On their part, some CID officers have complained of lack of support from their seniors who expect them to perform great wonders with limited resources.
They also complained of lack of support from other security departments like the SIS who instead of fighting crime are busy pointing accusing fingers on the good works of CID by writing fictious and false reports whilst at the same time wasting time chasing political enemies that do not exist.
Meanwhile, some of the countrys eminent commentators in separate interviews with Nyasa Times recently said are deeply concerned with the rate at which crime is growing in the county.
A security studies lecturer at Mzuzu University who refused to be named for safety reasons said it is a shame to note that robberies are being carried out on daily basis yet the country spends millions of tax payers money on the secret service which he said is not living up to its billing in as far as detecting and thwarting organized crimes is concerned.
The lecturer who previously had worked in the police service added that it is the duty of the SIS to detect and put on alert their police colleagues on any suspicion activities about to take place.
Our secret service is not helping the country because from my understanding they were supposed to disintegrate organized robberies before they happen through their spying gadgets..this is a very big problem and needs urgent attention, commented the lecturer.
His comments were corroborated by a Zomba based Chancellor College (Chanco) law professor who warned police to contain the situation failing which she said would result into most investors being scared away.
The problem is that in my view, there is very little coordination between the SIS and the police department otherwise if these two powerful institutions were working hand in hand cases of organized crimes would have been a talk of the past.
My fear is that some weeks ago a certain Chinese national who was robbed at gun point raised similar concerns and this would scare potential investors away, he observed.
Over the recent weeks, Malawi has witnessed high profile robberies the latest one being the Mangochi NBS bank robbery where robbers went away with over MK2.5 million.
Apart from banks, other institutions and individuals have fallen victims to the organized thefts and they include key distributors of the countrys two mobile companies Zain Malawi and TNM, Mulli brothers, Asian and Chinese traders and Western Union among several others that have equally lost millions courtesy of a succession of organized robberies.
In what is seen as typical Hollywood drama is the truism that even police stations have not been spared from the spate and in some instances robbers have walked away with either money or weapons stolen from a police station.
When contacted to comment on the concerns raised, Southern Region police publicist Davie Chingwalu referred Nyasa Times to police headquarters in Lilongwe saying, Its a national issue.
And all efforts to talk to police spokesperson Willie Mwaluka were unsuccessful as his mobile phones were out of reach.
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