Independent rights abuse probe mechanism on the cards

said.

Minister Chinamasa was speaking on the implications of the new Constitution to participants of the inaugural defence course at the National Defence College on Monday.

The course is being attended by senior officers from the Zimbabwe National Army, Air Force of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Prison Service and the President’s Office.

Minister Chinamasa said Section 210 of the new Constitution provided for the setting up of independent complaints mechanism intended to check on the behaviour of the members of the defence forces.

“If you tread on the toes of civilians, they complain and you know civilians are not amenable to your commands,” he said.

“They complain and there should be a mechanism through which they channel complaints and get redress. So, we are going to set up an independent complaints’ mechanism to deal with complaints against the behaviour of security forces.”

Minister Chinamasa said the independent body would handle complaints to do with alleged human rights violations by members of the security services.

“These human rights are enshrined in Chapter (4) of the Constitution and these are the right to property, right to privacy, right to my person and even assault of civilians,” he said.

“So members of the civilian population should be able to lodge a complaint through this mechanism we are launching for the first time.”

Minister Chinamasa noted that the Ombudsman, also known as the public protector, would continue dealing with complaints from the security forces against their own administration.