If the complaints mechanism envisaged by section 210 were set up promptly, it would help restore police/public relations by enabling the public to lodge factual complaints and reduce the number of exaggerated and unsubstantiated rumours and reports in the media against the police.
In the absence of a special mechanism under section 210, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission [ZHRC] seems an eminently satisfactory alternative for dealing with complaints of misconduct on the part of members of the security services. Its functions are set out in section 243 of the Constitution and include the following:
- to … ensure observance of human rights and freedoms,
- to receive and consider complaints from the public and to take such action in regard to the complaints as it considers appropriate,
- to protect the public against abuse of power … by State and public institutions and by officers of those institutions,
- to investigate the conduct of any authority or person, where it is alleged that any of the human rights and freedoms set out in the Declaration of Rights have been violated by that authority or person,
- to secure appropriate redress, including recommending the prosecution of offenders, where human rights or freedoms have been violated.
Under section 342(2) the Commission has all powers necessary for it to carry out these functions.
The Commission has also taken over the role of the PUBLIC PROTECTOR – the name says it all [see paragraph 16 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution].
HR Commission Willing to Investigate
The ZHRC has shown concern about reports that security services used excessive violence to control the disorders that broke out recently in Beitbridge, Harare and Bulawayo. In Bulawayo, where it was alleged that the police forcibly evicted tenants of a hostel and in the process caused the death of a child, the Commission sent a commissioner to look into the matter. The chairperson of the Commission indicated that the Commission is engaging the police continuously over human rights.
He has pointed out, however, that it is difficult to take action on the basis of unsubstantiated press reports, and the commission would prefer victims to come forward and make formal complaints.
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