18 February 2008
Maputo — The Interior Ministry has warned that the work of community policing is not an alternative to employment.
According to Pedro Cossa, the spokesperson for the general command of the Mozambican police, in every country where forms of community policing exist, the responsibility is borne by respectable people, with their own well defined life style, who organize themselves to defend the community and its property. This work is voluntary and does not involve payment.
Cossa admitted to AIM that this may cause some misunderstandings but he insisted that members of the community policing councils have no right to remuneration or allowances. Furthermore, there is no money in the government's budget to pay wages for community police.
There are currently 2,710 Community Policing Councils operating in the country, working under difficult conditions and with no pay. They are now claiming some kind of remuneration because they say that they are complementing the work of the police.
Cossa recalled that in Mozambique there is one policeman for about 900 inhabitants, compared with the average of one to 350 in most countries in southern Africa.
He added that in countries such as South Africa, Canada, the United States and others that have community policing, this job is done by volunteers, who organize themselves in shifts during their free time to defend property in their neighbourhoods.
"During a recent conference on community policing in Beira, it was found that there are different points of view about this activity, including one that members of the community police are an extension of the police, and they are doing what the police are failing to do", he said.
According to Cossa, the truth is that both the police and the community police councils complement each other to guarantee security of the citizens, but the philosophy behind the creation of these councils is that their members do not live off this activity.
During the same conference, Deputy Interior Minister Jose Mandra stressed that members of the Community Policing Councils must be aware that they do not replace the police and they are not even a paramilitary force.
He also noted that the resources for the operations of these councils must come from the communities themselves and that this kind of work is a reaffirmation of citizenship. Hence these activities must be done in close cooperation with the communities.
Certain allowances that some members of these councils have been receiving come from contributions by the communities, including some companies operating in those neighbourhoods.
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