Give  the security sector resources

A COUNTRYis as strong as its security apparatus. If its police, army, intelligence and prison services are incapacitated operationally due to lack of resources, manpower and equipment, it is as good as dead.
Anyone big or small can attack the country and usurp its sovereignty and territorial space. You cannot call yourself a self-respecting nation without a well-equipped police force and army to fight crime, guarantee  peace and security and above all maintain law and order.
Zimbabwe’s security sector is the  envy of many in the region and  internationally because of its well- trained officers and its ability and  capacity to handle any situation.
This has guaranteed both stability and security for the  people, major prerequisites for the promotion of development, investment and progress. No one wants to invest in a country which is a playing field for criminals, susceptible to invasion by even the weakest neighbour.
Elsewhere in this issue we carry a disturbing story in which the Co-Minister of Home Affairs, Cde Kembo Mohadi, is accusing his Finance counterpart Tendai Biti of deliberately underfunding the Zimbabwe Republic Police to cripple its operations. The co-minister, therefore, vowed that  police will not remit all the money they raise through fines to Treasury but retain some for  operations.
“Yes, we are not remitting everything we collect from various fines to Treasury. We are always left with a retention allowance that we use for operational costs and other necessities. We have realised that without doing that we could have long been grounded if we were to wait and solely depend on him. The police’s budgetary allocation is too small for the work expected of them and the retention fee, though still not enough, is playing a critical role in filling in the gap,’’ said Cde Mohadi.
Under these circumstances we agree with Cde Mohadi that we cannot allow our police operations to be ground because Minister Biti wants money from fines. It is unthinkable to fathom a situation where police wake up without fuel, without vehicles without equipment? It is for this  reason that the Government  should allocate more resources to  our police and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. This business  where you find Government allocating cars to non-critical sectors, denying our security  sector is dangerous. The most  unroadworth vehicles you find on our roads belong to our security sector and one wonders how Government expects police and the army to respond to emergencies or an attack without equipment.
When robbers strike we all phone the police but we have not  bothered to ask the question, how  do they get to my house in the  middle of the night?
Denying police funds is  shooting ourselves in the foot and the consequences are too ghastly to contemplate.
Minister Biti should therefore attend to the resource requirements of our security sector without delay. Zimbabwe is  endowed with mineral resources  such as gold, and diamonds that have put us under spotlight by imperialists.
Incapacitating our security system is tantamount to inviting our enemies to come and play soccer at Sakubva Stadium. We  need to buy vehicles and other  equipment for the police so that they can carry out their mandates  of fighting crime and  maintaining  law and order. They cannot do that if we incapacitate them.
It is not fair to even expect police to rely on fines for their operational requirements of all  things when we are paying heavy taxes to Treasury. 
This country is at risk if we underfund the security sector. We  demand that Minister Biti prioritise police and the Zimbabwe Defence Forces to buy  their requirements as a matter  of  urgency. This business of battered vehicles that we always see on our roads is not on. What is ironic is that while this is happening Government is buying expensive  Range Rovers, Land Cruisers and Mercedes Benz for ministers. The  Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee has  better cars than the police and we  wonder what Jomic will do without the police when violence  erupts. Give the security sector  resources.