Maravi

Lubinda advises govt to build police camps

Lubinda advises govt to build police camps
By Nomusa Michelo
Tuesday October 09, 2007 [04:00]

Patriotic Front Kabwata member of parliament Given Lubinda has advised the government to build police camps for police officers instead of buying houses. Commenting on remarks attributed to home affairs minister Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha that the government would buy houses for police officers while implementing the plan of building 34,000 houses for police officers, Lubinda said it would be less costly for the police service to construct its own houses.

“It is counter-productive to be buying houses for police officers rather than building. I have argued before that there is no reason why the police, Zambia National Service and the Zambia Army should buy houses, because they have the capacity to construct structures,” he said.

“It would be cheaper and prudent for the Zambia Police to construct houses and turn them into camps. Everywhere in the world, security and defence office are accommodated in camps; you don’t find soldiers and police accommodation in compounds together with ordinary people.”

Lubinda said good accommodation for police officers would also help to improve security in the country.

He also said poor salaries received by police officers made it difficult for them to find decent accommodation and have difficulties in meeting their monthly rental obligations.

Lubinda said the housing crisis exposed a lack of planning by the government. He said while the concept of community police was good, all police officers should not live in compounds with the community.

“This concept of police posts is temporary, what we need is an increase in police stations with police camps. That is the only way we are going to ensure security, and avoid police officers being evicted on a daily basis,” he said.

“The money that minister Shikapwasha wants to use to buy houses, he could start to build new camps in the country. The community police concept is a good concept but you don’t go to the extent of scattering your police in the compounds.”

Last week, Lt Gen Shikapwasha said the government would continue to buy houses for police officers, while implementing its master plan of constructing 34,000 houses.

He said the government had bought close to 100 houses in Ndola and more than 100 houses in Lusaka from the National Housing Authority (NHA).

Labels: GIVEN LUBINDA, POLICE

posted by MrK @ 3:31 AM