When I was growing up, my father used to refer to police as ‘mabhurakwacha’, a name that I never understood, until in my primary school years, when I eventually asked him.
He explained to me that it meant, ‘Black Watcher’, which is what a division of the colonial Rhodesian police was called, whose only role was to suppress Black people, and to watch their every move, so as to crush any form of dissent – no matter how minimal and peaceful.
The ‘Black Watchers’ would be tasked with monitoring every Black person’s movements, associations, activities, and what they said – even if it was said in a private conversation.
This division of the Rhodesia police was ruthless beyond words, and would crush any form of dissent with unparalleled brutality.
If word ever got out that an individual had been saying something negative against the Rhodesia regime, even in a private conversation, that person would be arrested and tortured ruthlessly.
If a report reached them that a teacher was prone to ‘twist’ history in his/her lessons, so as to tell the real ‘African story’, the Black Watchers would be upon that teacher in a flash – resulting even in a beating up and arrest in front of the whole class.
Needless to say, when it came to any peaceful demonstrations – which were not uncommon in those days – this division of the police would descend with all its force.
Tear gas, water cannons, beatings, and shootings – even with the use of live bullets – and arrests of peaceful protesters were the norm.
This ruthless response to even the most peaceful of protests, easily provoked the people to react with stones – leading the racist Rhodesia regime in accusing the protesters of engaging in violence.
As such, no protest against the regime – no matter how peaceful – was ever regarded as having being peaceful.
This was a common tactic by the racist regime – who would accuse the protesters of trying to violently remove a constitutional government – as a pretext to eventually completely ban protests, declare a state of emergency, ban the political parties involved, and then arrest their leaders.
The Black Watchers would go door-to-door arresting anyone suspected of having engaged in those peaceful protests – that the police’s deliberate heavy-handedness had turned them violent.
It was very common for enemies to make false reports to the police about each other’s involvement in the protests, so as to settle old scores.
Children as young as seven were thrown into holding cells, under the pretext of having participated in ‘violent protests’.
Actually, most of these little children would have merely been spectators to the peaceful protests, and the subsequent police brutality.
The police instilled such fear that they were the most loathed people in the neighbourhoods – and to make matters worse, they were also Black and resided in the same communities as the people they tormented.
The pitting of fellow sufferers against other fellow sufferers was another disturbing trait, in that these Black Watchers allowed themselves to be used in such a manner – since they were Black people who were just as much victims as any other oppressed Black person, but for some strange reason, they viewed themselves as better.
This brazen cruelty by the Black Watchers made the police so loathed and feared that, as a little child, I remember parents threatening their misbehaving children by merely saying, ‘hona mupurisa uyo’, meaning, ‘there is a police officer’ – disturbingly, the children would actually be so terrified that they would immediately behave themselves.
This would mean that these little children would have been exposed – as first hand witnesses – to the gruesome brutality of these Black Watchers, as most of their deeds were carried out on the streets in the full view of everyone, including little children.
They had obviously witnessed their fathers and mothers, older brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends’ families being beaten to a pulp on the streets by the police, for merely daring to challenge the Rhodesia regime.
They had been woken up with loud knocking at the middle of the night, with the police budging into their houses and turning them upside down whilst demanding where their fathers were – and seeing their parents being dragged out of the houses, never to be seen again for days.
It would not be surprising that these little children are the same people who finally decided to cross the borders into Mozambique, Zambia, and Botswana to finally take up arms against the brutal Rhodesia regime.
Such a ‘Black Watcher’ mentality within the police force should have gone with the coming of Independence in 1980, but that is still questionable.
Is today’s police in Zimbabwe any different from the Black Watchers?
It is so hard, if not utterly impossible, to tell the difference, because if I had not mentioned that what I was writing about above happened during the Rhodesia era, one could easily have concluded that I was writing about what happened a month ago in independent Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police needs to be genuinely transformed into one responsible for detecting, investigating and preventing crimes, as prescribed in Section 219(1) of the Zimbabwe Constitution.
It should preserve the internal security of Zimbabwe, not by stifling peaceful constitutionally-enshrined protests, but arresting genuine terrorists and other rowdy people, who are most likely to be there.
In fact, as in normal democracies, the police should protect peaceful demonstrators.
I truly admired a recent scene in which peaceful protesters against South African President Jacob Zuma, gathered right in front of him – holding up their placards – while he was delivering a speech.
The SA police never prevented them from peacefully protest, neither were they arrested by Zuma’s security details.
If it had been in another country, they could have easily been accused of trying to assassinate the president.
That was a very enviable example of democracy at play, and it happened just next door!
The Zimbabwe of government could have banned the importation of goods from SA, but what we should immediately import is its democracy.
No democracy is perfect, and SA has its own problems, but we can still learn a lot from them.
Zimbabwe has one of the best constitutions on the continent – and other countries, including SA, should be coming here to learn about democracy – but it is only good on paper, as it is rarely implemented.
Section 219(1) (c), clearly states that the police service should be responsible for ‘upholding this Constitution and enforcing the law without fear or favour’.
That Constitution that the police service is expected to uphold also states, in Section 59, that ‘every person has the right to demonstrate and present petitions, but these rights must be exercised peacefully’.
The police and the community are one, as we are all the same, and such, there should never be any distrust and animosity between the two, but work together.
They should also remember that even in their criminal investigations, most of their information comes from the community – therefore, we should have a good working relationship.
I was really touched by the example set by the Dzamaras – during their gathering at Africa Unity Square on Wednesday 10 August 2016 – when they brought their whole families, and offered the police some cake.
That was very exemplary, indeed, of the mutual understanding and trust that should exist between the community and the police.
It was very unfortunate that the police refused the cake – hopefully, soon the police will realise that those who are opposed to the ZANU PF government – in a peaceful democratic manner – are not their enemies.
In fact, that is why Section 219(3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe states that, ‘The Police Service must be non-partisan, national in character, patriotic, professional…’
The police should, therefore, not take sides in political party matters, but should be professional at all times.
One thing I can guarantee the police is that, the vast majority of people who are opposed to the ZANU PF government – and are prepared to peacefully protest against it – are very patriotic and love their country so much that they seek to harm no one, neither do they seek to unconstitutionally remove the government.
They might not like ZANU PF, but that does not mean they do not love their Zimbabwe, those things are totally different.
The vast majority of Zimbabweans merely seek a better livelihood for themselves, and do not seek to hand over the country to some foreign elements – that would be an insult, as we have enough intelligent people with amazing leadership qualities right here in Zimbabwe.
Therefore, the notion that those peacefully protesting or opposed to ZANU PF governance are agents of foreign powers, should be dispelled from the mindset of the police.
If there is anyone seriously working for foreign powers, then the police should investigate them, and – if there is a crime – bring them to book.
Otherwise most of us are just exercising our constitutional rights, as enshrined in Section 67, but particularly (1)(b), which states that, ‘every Zimbabwean citizen has the right to make political choices freely’.
The nation now expects the police service of an independent Zimbabwe be diametrically opposite that of the Black Watcher colonial Rhodesia.
Zimbabweans expect a police service that protect them – one that is for the people, not against them – and as such, a new era in policing must be witnessed in an independent Zimbabwe, in which the police are our friends, not to be feared.
