SECRET RECRUITMENT EXPLODES
…Police enlistment scandal sparks outrage, shocks Zambians
By Mast Reporters
THE secret recruitment of 4,000 police officers has sparked a massive public backlash against the United Party for National Development (UPND) government with both its critics and supporters condemning the exercise as lacking transparency.
In a rare show of bipartisan patriotism, some staunch UPND members have joined the government’s critics in demanding transparency and account ability in the recruitment exercise for all citizens to benefit.
Former home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo, member of the Lusaka UPND district executive committee Matomola Likwanya, foreign based UPND stalwart George Mutonga and some senior police officers have condemned the secret recruitment alongside opposition political leaders and ordinary citizens.
The Zambia Police Service has defended the method of recruitment saying it was not adverised to the public because it is an “internal” exercise aimed at filling vacancies left by those who have left the service.
But leading the pack, Kampyongo has condemned government’s alleged “secret recruitment” of police officers describing it as strange.
In an interview with The Mast, he urged Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security Jack Mwiimbu’s to order the police to stop the process immediately citing the lack of transparency and public advertisement.
Kampyongo expressed shock and dismay, stating that Zambia had never had a secret police recruitment process before.
The new method introduced by the United Party for National Development (UPND) regime was unprecedented.
“The news of the secret police recruitment is shocking and surprising as it has never happened in the history of Zambia even when I was minister of home affairs and before. Government is mandated to publicly advertise the recruitment in the defence and security wings after seeking approval from Parliament,” he said.
Kampyongo called for the recruitment to be immediately halted until proper procedures were followed, warning that any defiance would lead to Zambians losing confidence in the Zambia Police Service.
Kampyongo, who is Patriotic Front (PF) Shiwang’andu member of Parliament (MP), labelled the on-going recruitment process corrupt and scandalous.
“We also question the opaque criteria used to select candidates because recruitment should be a national exercise with thorough advertising to include all provinces,” he said.
“Allegations abound that the UPND secretariat is involved in the recruitment process, with letters circulating online that suggest underhand methods were used.”
And senior police officers close to the recruitment at Force Headquarters have expressed ignorance of the recruitment exercise saying instructions were from State House and the UPND secretariat.
The officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimisation and dismissals, said there was too much political pressure from State House on who should be recruited.
“You came over to Lilayi yesterday and you saw the vehicles that were dropping off the kids to join us. Seventy per cent of the kids are from senior UPND officials. Those are relatives to government officials and State House. Mwana [friend], what this government is doing is pure criminal and you will see what will happen in terms of police operations,” one of the senior officers to be involved in the training of the 4,000 recruits said.
Another senior officer at Lilayi college said the secret recruitment has created division within the Zambia Police Service, which might negatively affect the quality of the training.
“You guys in that police WhatsApp group, one of your friends asked your colleague [police spokesperson Godffrey] Chilabi about it and were you not shocked that it took almost the whole day for Chilabi to respond to that question? He was also not aware and he needed to consult. And even the time he was consulting, no senior officer was ready to confirm as it was a State House exercise. This recruitment is a State House recruitment and not a normal exercise,” the officer said.
The source said the database of names Chilabi had referred to to justify the secret nature of the recruitment did not exist at Force Headquarters.
“Zambians must wake up. Otherwise, this recruitment is a sham. It is a dirty exercise, a corrupt one. This is abuse of office by those people at State House. It is the first time this scandal is happening and it has created division among us officers,” the senior police officer said at Lilayi police college.
“You saw the cars that brought the recruits and that must open your eyes about in whose interest is this recruitment being undertaken,” he said.
The local community surrounding the training college is not happy.
A check at Lilayi Police College by The Mast yesterday found scores of residents, mainly families of police officers and nearby compounds watching the new arrivals with curiosity.
Those interviewed expressed surprise over the exercise, wondering when government had recruited the new trainees because they usually knew weeks in advance that there would be a new intake of recruits and even prepared for their arrival.
Some were heard accusing President Hakainde Hichilema of being arrogant without caring about the people’s concerns about his questionable decisions.
“Iyi yena ni gas. Ni tear-gas atusansa mu menso. Nacitukalipa sana fye. So naifwe natwishiba ifyakucita [this is tear-gas he has sprayed in our eyes. We’re not happy]. We want to know when the government advertised the recruitment. We want to know where these kids are coming from, we want to know whose children they are,” one woman who asked to remain anonymous said.
Meanwhile, a UPND member based in the diaspora George Mtonga has said the nature of the exercise needed advertising rather than picking people from nowhere.
“While we acknowledged the operational need to address vacancies arising from retirements, attrition and resignations, the scale and nature of this exercise raised serious legal, administrative and governance concerns,” Mtonga said.
He said the scale of recruitment raised red flags because the reported intake of approximately 4,000 recruits could not reasonably be classified as an “internal adjustment”.
Mtonga said a process of such magnitude constituted a national recruitment exercise, regardless of how one would want to classify it.
Another UPND member and Kamwala councillor in Kabwata Constituency Mainda Simataa wrote on his official Facebook page, “The secret recruitment of 4,000 police officers without advertising is so wrong. That recruitment must be cancelled and done transparently. If secret job recruitments were wrong under PF, even under UPND they should be wrong. STOP IT!”
UPND Lusaka Province information and publicity secretary Matomola Likwanya also condemned the secret recruitment.
“Are you aware that someone’s child on Sunday is reporting in camp to train as a police officer secretly? Bally, all job recruitment since 2021 have been advertised and open; why this one? Look, we went to prison and suffered so much hard for this party to form government to help the poor people and not to have a few privileged to have their children recruited and leave out ordinary poor Zambians,” Likwanya wrote on his Facebook page.
Zambia Police Service Godfrey Chilabi, however, said the recruitment was a result of retirements, attrition and resignations among personnel.
Chilabi said the internal advertisements were issued mainly to qualified civilian employees within the service, allowing them to transition into the regular police (mainstream) establishment.
However, senior police officers have challenged Chilabi to name the civilians who were recruited and to make public the internal memo about the recruitment.
