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The hunter joins the hunted in Zimbabwe's war against crime
Zim Online
As darkness slowly envelops the eastern border town of Mutare, Edmore Mukwena (not his real name), a senior Zimbabwean police officer, rather hurriedly puts on his faded grey uniform as he gets ready for the evening's "assignment."
Soon, Mukwena's battered Renault 18, packed with five other "colleagues" who literally live by the sword in Mutare's crime-infested Sakubva suburb, roars into life as he drives towards a dingy spot along Forbes Border Post on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border.
It is at this spot that Mukwena, a veteran and "loyal servant of the people" over the past 15 years, now ekes a living as the boss of a criminal gang.
"I have resorted to crime because that is the only way I can survive. The criminals make money, so why shouldn't I work with them if that is how my family will survive?"
"Tell me, what is better, to arrest a criminal and get a salary that is not enough to buy a pair of trousers or partner the criminals and make millions of dollars?
"I use my police identification card and uniform to scare away border jumpers. After they run away, my gang loots their wares, which we later resell," says Mukwena, who opened up to ZimOnline only after much coaxing and reassurance that his true identity would not be revealed.
Mukwena also uses his services gun to scare away the more hardened border jumpers who sometimes try to put up some resistance.
The Mutare police officer is not alone. Hundreds of the Zimbabwe Republic Police's once highly regarded officers have been forced to forsake the oath to keep the law and instead turned to crime as the country's six-year economic crisis deepens.
"I take 50 percent of the spoils while my gang shares the other half. I am the boss and after all, I am the one with the uniform and the police identity card. Other members of my gang simply pose as civilian police," Mukwena told ZimOnline from a smoky bar in downtown Mutare.
With an average paltry salary of Z$3 million, Mukwena like most police officers, says he can hardly make ends meet.
The police are among the lowest paid workers in Zimbabwe which is grappling hyperinflation and severe food shortages. Zimbabwe's inflation shot up to 502.4 percent in November, highlighting worsening economic conditions in the once prosperous country.
Food, medicine, fuel and virtually every other basic commodity is in short supply because the country does not have foreign currency to import the commodities after the International Monetary Fund withdrew balance-of-payments support to Harare following disagreements with
President Robert Mugabe over fiscal policy and other governance issues.
The forex shortages were worsened after Mugabe began his farm seizure programme five years ago. The farm seizures destabilised agriculture, the country's biggest hard cash earner, while food production dropped by about 60 percent to leave Zimbabwe dependent on handouts from food relief
agencies.
The state-funded Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average family of a father, mother and four children requires $11.9 million for basic goods and services per month which is several times more than the take-home pay of most workers, including policemen and soldiers, who have propped up Mugabe's government.
But many police officers have found a new way to beat the worsening poverty and economic hardships - they have simply swapped roles from being enforcers of the law to accomplices in crime.
Here in Mutare, residents say they have long lost trust in the police because according to some of the residents the police have turned into worse criminals than the usual thief or gangster in the city.
"The government should stop training more police officers because they are nurturing criminals. The more policemen they train, the more criminals they are unleashing on society," says Muchafara Matutu wryly.
To prove his point Matutu, a 28-year accountant with city financial services firm, without prompting quickly recounts an encounter he had with one of the robber-policeman.
"From nowhere the policeman charged at me, accusing me of being on the police's list of wanted criminals and before I knew it, he had pinned me down and handcuffed me. He only released me after empting my pockets. I ran for dear life," said Matutu.
Last October, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri told a
parliamentary portfolio committee on defence that his officers were "dangerously underpaid" and admitted that some were resorting to crime to make ends meet.
Chihuri said: "The situation is very bad. It would not be surprising if serving officers decide to down their tools anytime from now. They are saying they cannot wait for next year for a salary adjustment. Our officers
are being forced to steal and get bribes to buy cabbages for their families."
Police spokesman Wayne Bvidzijena last month also told the Press that more than 100 police officers had been fired over the past year for engaging in criminal activities.
Judging from the number of police officers who are turning to crime, it appears Mugabe's cash-strapped government is unable to do much to stop the trend.
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Originally Posted by Stormy
