By Talent Gondo
The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is set to conduct a lifestyles audit for it’s police officers amid revelations that some members of the uniformed forces are benefitting from corruption activities which have seen them getting rich overnight.
This was revealed by the recently appointed ZRP boss, Commissioner General Tandabantu Godwin Matanga while presenting oral evidence to the Temba Mliswa chaired Mines and Energy Portfolio Committee in parliament today.
Commissioner Matanga however could not give details of the process which he said was necessitated by concerns raised by whistleblowers, citizens and other stakeholders that there were ZRP officers who ‘had all of a sudden amassed too much wealth and had become rich overnight’.
“A lifestyles audit is going to be done soon because we notice that it is necessary especially for certain sections of the force including traffic among others,” said Commissioner General Matanga, adding that plans were at an advanced stage for the process to start.
“We are aware that the process is a bit cumbersome and technical but we are aware that it is necessary if we are to address concerns raised by the public,” he said.
Commissioner General Matanga however could not respond to a lot of questions raised by legislators in the Mines and Energy portfolio committee, asking the house to give him a week to ‘put his house in order’.
“I am not privy to a lot of things that happened in the past since I only came into office this year. While I have people who were there when all this happened, it is not fair to have them respond when I am here and as their boss, I am kindly asking the house to give me time to go and look into the issues raised so that I respond on behalf of the ZRP,” said Commissioner General Matanga.
Former Home Affairs minister, Ignatius Chombo, who also attended the crucial oral evidence hearing at parliament professed ignorance that mining firms from Chiadzwa were chased military style, adding that he was not aware that ZRP officers were deployed during the said operation in 2016.
Last month, the Mines and Energy parliamentary portfolìo committee heard that Russian mining firm, DTZ- Ozgeo had it’s plant closed down military style in 2016 when over 80 police officers were deployed to their plant for the government led take over.
This move followed a directive by the then Mines and Mining Development Minister, Walter Chidhakwa, for all diamond mining firms to move out of Chiadzwa in Manicaland and pave way for the consolidation of mining activities in the diamond mining fields.
DTZ-Ozgeo Managing Director, Kusyla Kusyla told parliament that during this process, the firm lost some of its diamonds and assets, which to date the ZRP cannot account for despite taking over the mine military style.
Mliswa, who chaired the session asked the panel to react to whether it was proper for the ZRP to deploy ‘armed officers’ to a firm which was operating legally.
“We need to establish whether your conduct was reflective of the rule of law. We need to know why you deployed armed police officers to a mining firm whose operations were above board and we should also know what happened to all the diamonds and other valuable assets you found at their premises,” asked Mliswa.
He added that the committee noted the ZRP request to gather its evidence for presentation, but parliament was also going to summon all the other stakeholders including former ministers in the Home Affairs, Mines and Finance ministries including the former ZRP boss, Augustine Chihuri.
Mliswa said his committee was summoning everyone implicated in the missing $15 billion diamond saga to come before parliament and present their oral evidence.
The former Home Affairs minister, Ignatius Chombo however maintained that as far as he knows, it was not the police’s mandate to determine what went on at the mining fields since all mining operations fell under the ministry of Mines and Mining Development.
“Yes, I was the Home Affairs minister but I did not know about that particular deployment,” said Chombo, referring all questions on why armed officers were deployed to DTZ-Ozgeo premises to the ZRP Operations Department.
However, Commissioner Matanga maintained that he needed more time to establish what transpired.
“I cannot give statistics of what happened and I do not want to tie myself by confirming what I do not know. I need more time,” he said.
Parliamentarians questioned the ZRP of how many people lost their lives under “Operation Hakudzokwi”, querying on whether the police records showed this operation as successful and the benchmarks they used to ascertain its success.
Human rights organisations working in Chiadzwa allege that hundreds of small scale miners were injured, maimed while several died following this operation which aimed at chasing small scale miners from the diamond fields to pave way for government controlled mining companies.