(1) If, upon a request made by the Commissioner of Police, the Minister is satisfied that any regulating authority requires the assistance of the defence forces for the purpose of suppressing any civil commotion or disturbance in any police district, he may request the Minister responsible for defence to authorise the defence forces to assist the police in the exercise of their functions under this Act in the police district concerned.

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(2) where authority is given under subsection (1) for the defence forces to assist the police-

(a) every member of the defence forces who has been detailed to assist the police in any police district in the exercise of their functions under this Act shall be under the command of the regulating authority concerned; and

(b) a member of the defence forces who is assisting a police officer in the exercise of his functions under this Act shall have the same powers, functions and authority, and be subject to the same responsibilities, discipline and penalties as a member of the police force, and liable in the same circumstances (as) if he were a member of the police force, and shall have the same benefit or any indemnity to which a member of the police force would in the same circumstances be entitled.

Ncube thus argues that while he requested for the military to assist him maintain public order, they didn’t notify him that they were coming and neither did they get any instruction from him. Ncube argues further that at Harare International Conference Center where there was public disorder but no military officers arrived, there was no single death recorded. All deaths were recorded in areas where the army intervened in procedural violation of section 37 of POSA.

Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga recognises this piece of legislation but argues that “there was no time to comply” with it.