Measures promised against drunken and corrupt police

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Measures promised against drunken and corrupt police

7:49 CAT | 04 Jun 2019

Orlando Mudumane. [File photo: Flha de Maputo]

The Mozambican police announced on Monday that it is taking measures against members of the force caught in acts of corruption and drunkenness.

This follows the circulation of videos on social media (Facebook and Whatsapp) showing policemen, obviously drunk, dancing in the public highway. One video showed a policeman taking a bribes from a motorist.

“The Mozambican police force vehemently rejects this behaviour”, Orlando Mudumane, the spokesperson for the General Command of the police, told reporters. “The individuals involved have been identified and are now the subject of disciplinary proceedings”.

The traffic policeman filmed taking money from a motorist had also been identified, and would face criminal as well as disciplinary proceedings.

This is not the first time that police officers have been caught on camera extorting money from citizens. The fact that nowadays most mobile phones also contain a camera has made it much easier to catch corrupt traffic cops in the act.

Comando Geral da Polícia da República de Moçambique processa estes polícias filmados a dançar fardados e em estado de embriaguez pic.twitter.com/KokeD6Kp2L

— Alexandre (@AllexandreMZ) May 30, 2019

Mudumane’s promise to act against corrupt and drunken police follows an attack last week by the General Commander of the police, Bernadino Rafael against appointments in the force made on the basis of nepotism.

Rafael had discovered that personnel managers in the provincial police commands, particularly in Sofala province, had been granting ranks in the police to friends and relatives, even though there was a list of qualified officers who should have been appointed or promoted.

In the latest copy of “Seminario do Agente”, a weekly publication of the General Command, Rafael said that in Sofala, 44 officers due for promotion had seen their places occupied by friends and relatives of the personnel managers under this corrupt and nepotistic scheme.

These managers had just shelved the dispatches promoting officers who had risen in the force through their own merits. Now that the scheme had been discovered, those operating it would be severely punished, Rafael promised.

Such managers were harmful to the interests of the force, and would be compulsorily retired from the police, regardless of their age. “We can’t continue with people who damage other colleagues”, he said.

The scheme had begun in Sofala in 2015. The corrupt managers “received dispatches and shoved them into drawers”, said Rafael. “They chose people to appoint on the basis of friendship and family ties”.

Rafael apologised to those officers who had been harmed by the scheme, and promised “to restore justice”.

Source: AIM