By Saul Gwakuba-Ndlovu 

ARMED robbery incidents seem to be increasing in Zimbabwe since about the beginning of 2019, a development which puts focus on the ZRP, more or less, as from the advent of the new dispensation some 18 months ago. The public had most seriously hoped that the new ZRP leadership would bring about much positive change to the force’s active performance. 

Several armed robberies have occurred in Bulawayo alone since the beginning of this year. Many cases have been reported at various artisanal (makorokoza) mining sites while a couple have actually been visited on buses along the country’s highways. 

The January 2019 violent demonstrations did not show the ZRP in good light whatsoever.

One is certainly justified to say the ZRP could and, actually, should have done better to protect property, especially supermarkets that were ransacked and damaged. The role of most police forces is to enforce the observation of the law, hence the use of the phrase ‘law enforcement agents’ when referring to them. 

Another of the police force’s duties is, of course, to ferret information. The most important and very first police responsibility is the prevention of crime. Crime prevention results in the maintenance of the legitimate status quo; that is to say security, happiness and a feeling of hope and trust in the future. Should a crime be committed, however, it is the duty of the public at large and members of the police force to arrest the law-breaker and take him/her to the court for trial. 

There are situations where some police officers perform prosecutors’ duties. That is, in effect, a logical extension of an arresting (policeman/woman’s) officer’s function. A police force’s other responsibility is to sensitise their respective civil communities on how and why they should maintain law and order, good public health conditions and habits, sustainable physical environment as well as sound cultural, social and moral values. 

In Zimbabwe, the largest number of our police is in urban centres, with only a few stations in rural areas. The rationale behind this is in the colonial urban residential tradition and the socio-economic belief that a higher crime incidence occurs where there is a higher concentration of people. Another reason for a larger number of police personnel in densely populated areas was in anticipation of an uprising against the white minority regime by the oppressed blacks.

That era is well behind and we are now in an era where the police serve and protect the majority as well as a formerly tiny, racially privileged minority. Notwithstanding that political development, we still have to contend with two types of crime; that of passion and that of covetousness. Rape falls under the category of crimes of passion. Such crimes are largely caused by the consumption of hallucinatory and other mind-changing substances, such as alcoholic beverages as well as marijuana (mbanje). 

Some mental illness can also lead to sufferers committing rape. Indecent and/or extended exposure of some sexually-starved men and women to nudity or indecently exposed sexually sensitive parts of the human bodies can result in rape. That occurs among nymphomanias and sex maniacs.

It is now common for some religious leaders to be accused of rape by some members of their congregations. That is more so among those churches that hold more prayer sessions at night than during the day. The Roman Catholic Church is currently identifying some of its pastors in various countries who have been accused by some alleged victims, predominantly boys, of sodomy or some other form of homosexual behaviour. 

The second type of very common crime is stealing; pickpocketing, mugging, fraud, burglary (breaking into houses, premises) and stealing, armed robbery as well as forgery and uttering. 

These are some of the crimes the police deal with in various degrees of regularity. 

Saul Gwakuba-Ndlovu is a retired, Bulawayo-based journalist. He can be contacted on cell 0734 328 136 or through email. sgwakuba@gmail.com