Community requests for police base

By Thandeka Matebesi

Villagers in Ward 11 and 14 in Tsholotsho have applied for a police base as way of dealing with soaring crime rates.

Ward 11 councillor Jonathan Ndlovu said the police had received and accepted the request from the community.

“In response to the growing crime levels in Tsholotsho in general Headman Ngwizi and the community have applied for Police bases in ward 14 Makhaza and ward 11 in Nemane. They (the police) agreed to have a reporting base for neighbourhood police where the police will train villagers to be neighbourhood police or community police who will receive criminal reports and pass them to the main office”, said Ndlovu.

Ndlovu also said that the community would convert disused offices into police bases.”It is hoped that at Makhaza a disused District Development Fund (DDF) office will be turned into a police base.In Nemane it is envisaged that the community will mobilise funds to construct the police base”, he said.

He added that “This would take some time to be done. In the meantime the community will establish a crime reporting base to be manned by neighbourhood police”.

Ndlovu revealed that the base will act as a training facility for the police force.

“Once this base is established it will act as a training center where the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers from Tsholotsho will conduct training sessions and recruit more neighbourhood policemen. The reporting base would act as a relay center to the main police station in Tsholotsho. This is a welcome move as it would help us control the soccer tournaments, unlicensed bottle stores and the marijuana traffickers”, said Ndlovu.