Residents petition ZRP over corrupt police officers
By Thandeka Matebesi
Tsholotsho District residents have written a letter to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) headquarters complaining about the behavior of police officers stationed at Tsholotsho District station.
The residents are accusing some police officers in the district of being involved in corrupt activities and stock theft.In a letter signed by Ward 13 councillor Soka Ngwenya residents said police officers were nolonger performing their duty of protecting citizens and instead they were now causing problems for the people.
“We have a concern as the community of Tsholotsho regarding some of your police officers stationed at our local station. It has happened on some occasions that our community leadership is trying by all means to prevent stock theft but it becomes difficult as some police officers abuse their authority as they have the ability to produce fraudulent stock clearance forms and movement permits,” reads the letter.
According to the letter, between January 2019 and 2020, a lot of beasts were stolen and slaughtered along Tsholotsho- Nyamandlovu road.
We have noticed that in 2019 along Tsholotsho-Nyamandlovu road 29 beasts were recorded stolen and slaughtered along the road and the skin was left behind. This resulted in a police base being opened at Godzo line with the intention of preventing such crimes.
“In addition, from January 2020 we have noticed that the number of farmers missing their livestock has been increasing. We then decided to lay ambushes and it happened that we managed to arrest two of our villagers and one Grobbler Maphosa who is a police officer. In this incident, we noticed that Maphosa was the main culprit as he was in possession of fraudulent stock clearance forms and permits,” reads the letter.
Maphosa is accused of stealing more than 100 cattle in a period of three months. He is also suspected of working with a local abattoir in stealing, slaughtering, and subsequently selling meat from the beasts. The residents are appealing to ZRP to remove all the police officers involved in corrupt activities and replace them with new officers.
“As the community leadership, we are concerned about the behavior of your police officers. We are appealing to you (ZRP), if possible to remove almost all police officers stationed at Tsholotsho and post new faces who can better protect our people,” reads part of the letter.
