POLICE will today meet media stakeholders in Harare to discuss the safety of journalists ahead of this year’s harmonised elections.
The elections are expected in July of August.
The meeting was jointly organised by the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), and Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (Maz) in conjuction with police.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the meeting.
“We will meet with the media on April 4 to talk about the safety of journalists,” Nyathi said.
“We have arranged with ZUJ, Misa, Maz and journalists and editors from several media houses, and we agreed that we end with Harare because it is the biggest city. We have been doing these workshops cross the country to talk about how journalists and police can work together now that we are going for elections. This is being done so that whenever there is a gathering, police and media can understand each other; we are all serving the same public. Police are there to maintain law and order while journalists are there to inform us. So we need to understand each other,” Nyathi said.
He said police officers were also undergoing training in public order and security.
“We hope by the end of April 2023, we will have completed the training. I can assure the country that we have enough police officers to deploy at polling stations. Once the election dates are announced by the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has put in place motions in terms of voting processes, we will also deploy police officers to ensure that peace is maintained in these polling stations.
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“We are happy that government is mobilising resources to ensure that the police are able to perform their duties. We are ready for the elections, and we urge the public to report cases of violence without being intimidated. We are going to arrest anyone who engages in any form of violence irrespective of their political stature.”
Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga has already announced that an elections committee has been set up to co-ordinate the deployment of law enforcements agents.
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