Matanga shuffles CID top brass, provincial commands

By Daniel Kachere

Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga has shuffled the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) which has been mired in controversy since its director Commissioner Chrispen Charumbira was hauled before the courts for allegedly protecting criminals.
Charumbira is currently out on bail facing several counts of criminal abuse of office.
Matanga also shuffled all provincial commanders, a move which police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi ascribed to job rotations and filling of gaps left either by death or retirements.
Last week the police boss promoted 1 089 top officers with immediate effect.
Of those, 248 are senior officers of the rank of Superintendent to Commissioner and 841 are junior officers from the rank of Assistant Inspector to Chief Inspector.
Commissioner Moses Magandi, who was at the helm of Gweru provincial headquarters replaced Charumbira who is now at the Police General Headquarters (PGHQ) Human Resources Reserve section.
Commissioner W Tembo is now the Officer Commanding (OC) Harare province from PGHQ administration. Commissioner P Makotose was transferred from Mashonaland West to Mashonaland Central as OC.
From Mashonaland Central, Commissioner D Mahoya was moved to command Masvingo province.
Commissioner Erasmus Makodza is to remain as OC Matabeleland North, Commissioner N Jaboo remains as OC Matabeleland South, Commissioner B Dube is to remain as OC Support Unit (SU) and Commissioner W Makamache retains the Manicaland province command post while Commissioner P Mbangwa remains as OC Bulawayo province.
Meanwhile, Commissioner R M Basera was transferred from PGHQ Legal services to Police Protection Unit (PPU) as OC.
Commissioner W Muzah was also moved from PPU to Midlands as OC while Assistant Commissioner S G Ndou was relocated from CID to Mashonaland East as acting OC.
Last month Matanga promoted 5 629 non-commissioned (NCOs) junior police officers an exercise largely seen as appeasement of the security sector by President Mnangagwa in order to overcome disgruntlements in the uniformed forces over poor salaries.
Recently, Mnangagwa, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, promoted 54 Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) officers to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel effective November 10. Nhau/Indaba