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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
A 15-member delegation from Malawi is in the country to study the functions of Harare City Council municipal police and how it is complementing the role of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
Malawi cities do not have municipal police and rely on the national police service to enforce their by-laws.
In an interview at Town House, Malawi Secretary for Local Government and Rural Development Mr Kiswell Dakamau, who is leading the delegation comprising other senior government officials and town clerks of three major cities, said they had chosen Harare because it was doing well in that area and because of the cordial relations that existed between Malawi and Zimbabwe.
“In Malawi, we only have a national police service which is doing a good job,” he said. “We have, however, noted that in some cases, especially in urban councils, that the national police is overwhelmed and because of that issues that are usually very critical to the cities are trivialised.
“For example, in a city enforcement of by-laws is very fundamental. Waste management is vital in order to keep your city clean and to achieve that, it is important to tackle illegal vending by making sure that vendors trade at designated places.
“The issues of development control are also important. When you relax for a little bit you will find out that an illegal building has already been roofed. For you to secure the services of national police to assist on this very critical local government issue becomes a challenge.”
Mr Dakamau said it was in this light that Malawi embarked on the journey to Harare, as the country wished to introduce municipal policing in its four cities.
He said Harare was faring well among the cities in the region as far as municipal policing was concerned.
“We were in Johannesburg too,” said Dakamau. “We chose the two cities because they are performing very well in this aspect. We are ranking Harare close to the City of Johannesburg. It means Harare is doing fine.
“Over and above, we are also looking at the warm and cordial diplomatic ties that exist between our two governments. We have longstanding diplomatic ties and we are cementing that in the field of local government.
Mr Dakamau said there were twinning discussions going on between the cities of Lilongwe and Harare.
Harare Town Clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said the city was honoured to host such a powerful delegation.
“We are sharing what we do,” he said. “You can see from discussions that our challenges are almost the same, like issues of traffic enforcement and illegal vending. The difference is that we have a municipal police that takes care of those issues.
“Where we fail that is when we invite the national police, but in their case it is just the national police. They will be learning from us, but we are continuing to transform our municipal police considering the devolution that is coming. We are also expecting at some stage to have arresting powers and municipal courts.”
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