Police Under Spotlight Over "US$10 Bribes"
MDC Alliance Senator Morgen Komichi has said the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) should reform and stop corruption.
Komichi alleged that criminals are bribing police officers with as little as US$10 to escape from justice.
He made the remarks while contributing to the debate on the Police Amendment Bill in the Senate earlier this week. Business Times quoted Komichi as saying:
I believe that the Constitution tried its best to seek justice so the first thing is the removal of “Force” to “Service”. Indeed “force” was deployed by the police in the past.
The police were a power on their own. They were using force, whips and sometimes baton sticks to destroy the windscreens of kombis and others because they believed they were a force.
Now that they are going to be a service, they know that they are going to serve people and are subordinate to the people knowing that they were put by people who are in authority. So power lies with the people and that is important.
Indeed corruption is there even within the police force. When you give someone $10, then the case falls away. This is happening.
They were some youths that were arrested a few days ago and they gave the police $30 and were released.
This is what is happening. The law should really look into such issues which tarnish the police service.
It does not matter whether it was the “Force” but now that we are transforming the “Force” into a “Service” then we need to eliminate such.
