ZIMBABWEAN police have been accused of applying the law selectively against Mugabe's opponents

By Farisai Gonye 

HARARE – Zimbabwe police officers were two weeks ago asked to prove they were able to defend President Robert Mugabe’s controversial land reforms with “passion and conviction” as part of a test to determine eligibility for promotion, sources told ZimOnline. 

According to sources, 40 senior officers sitting for a promotional examination at Morris depot in Harare on October 10 were each asked to give a 10-minute address to an imaginary group of foreign journalists defending the chaotic and often violent land reforms as top commanders watched and recorded the mock speeches on videotape. 

Police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka refused to take questions on the matter saying it was an internal police issue and confidential. "Contents of internal police examinations are confidential," he said. 

The sources said the police officers, all chief superintendents and seeking promotion to the rank of assistant commissioner, were required to show that land reforms blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into severe food shortages were a model agrarian reform programme carried out in an “exemplary manner.” 

"You are the Officer Commanding (Crime) and you have been asked to address a group of visiting international journalists. You know fully well that the outside world has a wrong and negative view of the land reform programme,” read the police question paper shown to ZimOnline on Monday. 

“You are supposed to correct this view, clearly illustrating to them that the land reform is a model and that the government was justified in embarking on this exercise and that it was done in an exemplary manner. You have 10 minutes to prove that you can defend and promote the land reform programme with passion and conviction." 

Such examinations for senior officers aspiring for higher rank normally focus on managerial issues in addition to the usual questions to do with law enforcement operations. 

“We were caught off guard, but I did my best to praise-sing President Mugabe during the mock address to foreign reporters," said a police officer, who refused to be named as this would jeopardise his chances of promotion. 

The opposition and human rights groups often accuse the police of selectively applying the law, targeting government opponents for arrest. 

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, a self-confessed supporter of Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party, denies charges of being partisan and says his officers will arrest all suspects regardless of their political affiliation. 

Zimbabwe, also grappling with its worst ever economic crisis, has since 2000 when land reforms began, relied on food imports and handouts from international food agencies mainly due to failure by resettled black peasants to maintain production on former white farms. 

Poor performance in the mainstay agricultural sector has also had far reaching consequences as hundreds of thousands of people have lost jobs while the manufacturing sector, starved of inputs from the sector, is operating below 30 percent of capacity. - ZimOnline