Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to make reference to what Hon. Mandipaka has said and most of the things I will be talking from experience. Zimbabweans are peace loving people and they do not want to be antagonised. Within our system, community or society, we do have what we regard as malcontents or deviance, people who would like to see discord in society so that development is negated. I do not want to go further to what Hon. Mandipaka said because those things are already on record but I would like to say in Zimbabwe, we have got a police service that is law abiding.
Our police service is born of the Constitution and the obligations that they carry are a mammoth task of protecting life and property and maintaining law, and who in Zimbabwe does not want law and order? Even when we go to banks, we see people organising themselves without any police officer nearby because Zimbabweans are peace loving people. Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to say the good part of it is that in Zimbabwe, the philosophical policing principle is that consent. People in Zimbabwe are policed by consent and this is a historical heritage that we received from our traditional background and also from the revolution. This is because some of the people who are now in the police service were ex-combatants or liberation fighters.
So, they realised that the police cannot operate in a vaccum. Police officers have to work in tandem with society. This is why there is very limited antagonism between the police and the public. I would also like to take note of the fact that the police is a reflection of society itself. If society is violent, the police in a bid to maintain law and order can also try to match what is happening. If society is peaceful, the police can also be peaceful. If the society is corrupt, police officers are also corrupt. What I am saying Mr. Speaker Sir is that in Zimbabwe, policing is done effectively as it is at the present moment because there is trust between the police and the public.
The generality of our people are peace loving and they are never involved in criminal activities. The generality of our people are peace loving and they are never involved in violent demonstrations. It is so because if you notice our police officers in comparison with police services of other nations, you will realise that our police service is the least armed in the world, next to the British Bobby. When police officers are moving around, they do not have weapons or anything. They are at the mercy of members of the public and it is the public that protect them.
This is what we expect in a democracy such as ours. We expect the police and members of the public to work together. Even with political parties, desperation should not be targeted at the police. People who lose elections should know that their chance will come, like what is going to happen. 2018 is coming and people should be doing their homework so that they win the minds of the people. If people do not achieve that, then violence is not an option. We have been operating under very difficult circumstances over the years.
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