The Malawi Police Service has transferred all police officers from Zalewa Police Unit, following chaos that angry community members caused last week, on account of corruption.
The community members fought with police over the dead body of a murder suspect, Saidi Mussa, wanting to burn it when the police had taken it to Mwanza District Hospital.
Sources close to the matter say the angry locals only used the death of a motorcycle taxi operator as a scapegoat to deal with the police officers at the unit who they said were very corrupt.
“The police officers from our regional headquarters met the people later in the afternoon the same day. It transpired that there was no cooperation between the Officer-in-Charge and his officers with the general public.
“The locals accused the officers of greed and corruption at the roadblock such that instead of searching the vehicles, they were only getting money from vehicles carrying charcoal.The Regional Commissioner has transferred them all to other stations,” he said.
Southern Region Police spokesperson, Ramsey Mshane, confirmed the transfers but downplayed the corruption allegations against the officers.
“What happened was that the people were saying they did not want the officers. Our work as police relies on cooperation with the communities, so they said they didn’t want our officers, the management thought it wise to transfer them and bring other officers. The issue of corruption is something which has to be investigated properly,” he said.
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