The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube Municipal Reporter—
URBAN councils have approached the Government seeking approval to set up Metro Police with arresting powers in major towns as a way of curbing crime and upholding council by-laws. The move is also aimed at establishing municipal courts that will see the local authorities trying and passing sentence to offenders caught breaking council by-laws.The idea was first mooted in 2000 after councils complained that they were finding it difficult to track down those flouting by-laws, and those defaulting on rents and rates payments.
Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe president, Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni, who is also the Mayor of Harare said councils have noticed that there was a serious gap in terms of enforcement hence the need for municipal security officers to be given arresting powers. He said there was already a long standing proposal about the matter which they were simply reviving with the hope that this time around the Government considers it.
“As urban councils we have noted that there is a serious gap in terms of enforcement while we are responsible for the setting up of certain conducts within our jurisdiction we are not able to fully do this because we do not have arresting powers hence we are constantly looked down upon.
“We have noticed that there has been a sudden increase of resistance in our areas of jurisdiction and in some cases our officers have been harmed while trying to enforce by-laws therefore we feel that can be rectified when we get these arresting powers,” said Clr Manyenyeni.
Bulawayo City Council Acting Town Clerk Mrs Sikhangele Zhou added that discussions with the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing were now at an advanced stage.
Mrs Zhou, who is also the city’s chamber secretary, said they were hoping that since the country was in the process of aligning its laws with the Constitution, the issue of Metro Police and courts will be catered for within the Urban Councils Act.
She said they were hopeful that their 16-year-long advocacy will finally yield results and the provision included in the new Local Government Act of Zimbabwe (UCAZ).
“We set down with other members of the Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ) and agreed to derive a co-ordinated campaign for our police to be given arresting powers and probable the establishment of the municipal courts.
“What we realised is that there are a number of issues that can be easily addressed if we had these metro police and courts. There are a lot of by-laws that are being broken that need to be looked into. For example we have a problem of commuter omnibuses that are using illegal pick up points yet we have officers from the Zimbabwe Republic Police who seem not to be effective enough to address this matter,” said Mrs Zhou.
She said if the powers of local authorities were included in the new Local Government Act it will ease the manner of doing things within the local authorities.
“I believe as urban councils we have done our part, it is now up to the Government to decide whether this will be included in the Local Government Act but we are highly hopeful that this will be the case,” said Mrs Zhou.
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Cde Saviour Kasukuwere said while this could a positive move it was premature to discuss it as yet.
“Give us more time on that matter,” said Minister Kasukuwere.
The process was first mooted by BCC in 2000 when they made an application through the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development on giving council police arresting powers. Zimbabwe is one of the few nations where council police do not have arresting powers. In South Africa there is a provision of Metro Police.
In South Africa municipal police forces are responsible for traffic policing and enforcing local by-laws within the municipality, and work in co-operation with the South African Police Service to prevent crime and maintain public order. Municipal police forces exist in a number of major South African cities, including Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. However, the municipal police forces in South Africa do not conduct criminal investigations. Any person arrested by the municipal police on suspicion of having committed a criminal offence is handed over to the South African Police Service.
