The ZRP also cancelled all leave days for its members and directed provinces to hold public order re-training for personnel, to psych them up for the “gruelling time ahead”, according to sources.
Before the elections, subject to a new constitution and some key reforms being agreed upon by the three parties that make up the government of national unity, the country is expected to hold a referendum for the new charter.
Sources within the ZRP told The Zimbabwean early this week that they had been activated to get ready, with all those on leave having their rest days cut short “with immediate effect”.
“We got a directive from the PGHQ (Police General Headquarters) on Wednesday, saying provinces must freeze all leave days and recall those who had already gone on leave,” said a Harare-based senior police officer.
The directive is said to have come in the form of an internal communication signal from the Officer Commanding Operations, Innocent Matibiri, addressed to all police provinces.
“We were also told to submit nominal roles of all our members to the provincial training centres, so that they can design schedules for public order re-training in preparation for the polls and also to phone all those officers who were already on leave and tell them to return to their respective stations with immediate effect,” said the source.
No dates had been set for the re-training exercise, but the officers believed this could start within the next few weeks.
“Usually, once those programmes are ordered, they begin immediately. So within the next two to three weeks we could be running around trying to get fit for the elections,” said another senior officer based at the PGHQ.
“You should also expect roadblocks all over the country, on top of those already put in place for the festive season, as we intensify security ahead of election campaigning.”
Junior officers who spoke to this paper expressed disappointment at the recent directive, which was set to prevent them from spending Christmas and New Year with their families. Others feared that the new directive could plunge their living and working conditions back to the post-March 2008 level, when they experienced “hell” at the hands of their superiors, largely accused of being partisan towards President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party.
The junior officers alleged that they were subjected to unprecedented terror by their superiors after Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his mainstream MDC-T had defeated Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in the March 29 first round of voting.
They alleged that Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, a war veteran and self-proclaimed supporter of Mugabe’s party, literally turned police camps into Zanu( P)F campaign grounds, deploying his trusted lieutenants to campaign for the ailing party and threaten perceived MDC supporters within the ranks with severe reprisals.
The junior officers also told of suppression of their liberty of movement, intimidation with both dismissal from work and being subjected to firing squads if they refused to rig the elections. They described the strict internal surveillance they were put under by the notorious Police Internal Security Intelligence as tantamount to imprisonment.
Several said early this week that they expected a similar scenario to return in most police stations, where certain privately-owned newspapers and visitors have previously been banned for being a “bad influence” on the police officers.
National police spokesman, Chief Superintendent Andrew Phiri, denied that the ZRP had recalled its officers, although The Zimbabwean spoke to three members who confirmed that they had been told to return to their stations immediately.
“No, that is not true. We have not called anyone. How can we prepare for elections whose dates have not even been announced? There is nothing like that,” said Phiri in a telephone interview.
Post published in: News