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Freeman Razemba Crime Reporter
POLICE Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri yesterday fired a broadside at MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s demands for security sector reforms, saying the opposition leader had “a pathetic understanding” of how the Government operates.Comm-Gen Chihuri told participants undergoing training at the National Defence College that calls for security sector reforms were misguided and ill-advised.
“The ZRP of 1980 is not the same as the BSAP of 1890, neither is it the same as of today. Organisational reform is an ongoing process and not a one-day event. The misguided ones think that if you pluck off the top, that is security sector reform,” he said in an apparent reference to Mr Tsvangirai.
“This is pathetic understanding and exposes the agony of ignorance in matters of statecraft and governance.”
Comm Chihuri said no one else could remove him except the President.
“It is basic understanding that the sitting President rules with whoever he puts in place according to the exercise of his sole prerogative. If an individual wishes to remove the top of the security organs, he has to win the elections first, be enthroned in power and thereafter put whosoever he wishes in charge of security sectors,” he said.
“Nobody will question you. That’s the practice all over the world. If the President doesn’t want me today, it doesn’t take two minutes for him to tell me to go out. But surely for some other fellow coming from a certain village to tell the President, remove this one, is madness at its highest.”
The police chief attacked the MDC-T leader for exhibiting ignorance to achieve his goals. “It labours the mind that the charm of political office can persuade one to conveniently ignore the simplicity of this position for political expediency.
“Such disposition unmasks an attitude of rebellion,” he said.
Comm Gen Chihuri presented a paper titled: “Police’s perspective on mobilisation and employment of Zimbabwe Security Forces and vision for the ZRP”.
Participants undergoing the military course at the defence college were drawn from the country’s armed forces.
President Mugabe recently said MDC-T’s calls for security sector reforms were a ploy by the West to dilute the efficiency of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
Comm Gen Chihuri said the ZRP was a professional force guided by a well articulated and documented vision, mission and strategic direction.
He said the organisation had under undergone thorough change through the injection of new blood, developmental programmes and restructuring at all levels to meet new expectations. “The organisation is not managed on impulse, hunches and gut reaction.
“The organisation is an adaptive and dynamic one,” he said. He said the illegal sanctions imposed on the country also took their toll on the momentum of the force but that it had remained steadfast on the machinations of enemies.
“This was all part of the illegal regime change agenda which sought to collapse police systems by creating despondency through deliberate denial of operational and administrative resources.
“It is a matter of public record that the plight of the police became so severe that members and officers went about their duties without basic functional resources,” he said.
He said he was pleased that the just ended harmonised elections had provided the long yearned for relief and the force had all the confidence that the vision of the ZRP to be the leading service provider in the world by the year 2020 would be realised.
Online Reporter