By Ngoni Shumba.
MUTARE, Zimbabwe. – Former Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa has accused Zanu PF of the elite capture of the country’s police force reducing it into behaving like its own private militia and had completely lost credibility.
Mutsekwa, a retired soldier, told News of the South in an exclusive interview that President Robert Mugabe had captured the police because it was the most strategic in repressing public dissent among all security service sector institutions.
“The police are critical in maintaining Zanu PF’s grip on power and even during the government of national unity they could not hand it over to the MDC as a partner in that government and was the only ministry with a co-ministerial arrangement.
“The police has always played a crucial role in repressing the masses since independence. Their brief is simply to keep and maintain the dictatorship in power. It has been tainted more than any other security sector in Zimbabwe,” Mutsekwa said.
He said from his stint as home affairs minister, police training depots were now indoctrination camps where recruits are taught to only respect President Mugabe and his party.
“They are only taught the greatness of Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF and nothing else. Their allegiance is not to the people or the constitution but the person of Mugabe and his Zanu PF party,” Mutsekwa said.
He however said rather worryingly it was also the least that was willing to reform itself and were showing willingness to be used unlike other state security arms.
“The difference between Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri’s pronouncements and that of General Constantine Chiwenga is that the former speaks for the entire establishment while the later speaks for himself,” Mutsekwa said.
He said the police were willing to be used by Zanu PF politicians while the military was not homogeneous in its acceptance of Zanu PF party positions.
“The army has transformed itself immensely over the years but the police is rather reluctant,” Mutsekwa said.
Mutsekwa said he was in constant touch with serving members of the military who have a completely different understanding and position on local politics to General Chiwenga’s.
He said on the other hand, he says Chihuri was presiding over a system that was all too happy to get instructions from politicians.
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