Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP), once regarded as a proud guardian of law and order, is now mired in corruption so brazen that it endangers the very citizens it is supposed to protect.
Instead of being a shield for the public, the force has become, in many instances, a predator feeding off the people’s vulnerability.
Under Commissioner-General Stephen Mutamba, the rot has not just lingered — it has worsened.
Corruption in the force is no longer an allegation whispered in dark corners; it is a lived reality for motorists, commuters and ordinary citizens.
Each day, countless Zimbabweans are harassed at illegal “roadblocks,” fleeced at police stations or left stranded because officers refuse to perform their duties without inducement.
In Bulawayo, residents complain that police expend more energy on beerhall and bar patrols, targeting drinkers, rather than addressing housebreaking, robbery and other violent crimes.
On the highways, what should be routine traffic enforcement has degenerated into open extortion, where officers demand bribes under the guise of spot checks.
At many stations, dockets gather dust until palms are greased.
The picture is one of a police service consumed by self-interest.
Nowhere is this rot more visible than on the roads.
A disturbing case in point is Zanamwe turn-off in Chitungwiza, where kombi crews allegedly pay US$3 per day to traffic officers.
For this fee, they are waved through even when their vehicles are overloaded, operating without licences or unroadworthy.
Passengers, often schoolchildren and workers, are crammed in unsafe vehicles whose continued presence on the roads is a daily gamble with death.
This practice is not just unethical — it is criminal.
Officers who take bribes are complicit in endangering lives.
Every accident caused by an overloaded or defective kombi is a tragedy that traces back, in part, to the bribe pocketed by a corrupt officer.
Every death is blood on their hands.
Equally disturbing is the silence of the ZRP top command.
Mutamba cannot claim ignorance.
His inaction raises the most dangerous question: Is leadership complicit, or simply incapable of enforcing discipline?
Either answer is damning.
Zimbabweans cannot afford a police leadership that looks away, while public safety is auctioned at the roadside.
If Mutamba is serious about restoring trust and ensuring public safety, he must move beyond rhetoric and implement tough, visible reforms.
These must include:
These reforms are not optional. They are urgent.
Without them, public trust will evaporate while lawlessness festers.
A society where citizens fear the police more than criminals is a society on the brink.
Zimbabweans deserve better.
They deserve a police service that lives up to its motto of “Pro Patria — For the Country,” not “Pro Pockets — For Themselves”.
They deserve to commute without wondering if the driver bribed his way past a checkpoint or if their safety has been sold for a handful of dollars.
Law and order cannot be for sale.
If Mutamba fails to act, history will record him not as a reformer but as the Commissioner-General who presided over the collapse of policing standards.
He will be remembered as the man who allowed corruption to become so normalised that lives were lost daily while the guardians of justice fattened their pockets.
Zimbabweans are right to ask the haunting question: Who will police the police?
The answer must begin with Mutamba himself.
He must show leadership, purge corruption and rebuild confidence in the institution he leads.
Accountability must start at the top — or the ZRP will collapse under the weight of its own rot, taking public trust down with it.
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