Chilundika’s annoyance on use of CDF police vehicle

By Daily Revelation Editor

Nchanga member of parliament (UPND) Derrick Chilundika says he has asked the police in Chingola to withdraw a Constituency Development Fund (CDF) police vehicle from patrolling private mines, so that it can be used to fight crime in the community, which has experienced a spate of killings in recent days.

Chilundika says he finds it unacceptable that a vehicle funded by taxpayers’ money should be patrolling private mines instead of serving the same public who paid for its purchase in the first place.

Copperbelt police commanding officer Peacewell Mweemba only described the patrols to the mines as “general”, since the private mining places only happened to fall in line because of the all-round patrols he seems to be referring to.

There surely must be some serious issues in the manner the patrols are being conducted in Chingola for one of the two members of parliament in the district to come out this forcefully, and in a very public manner through our lead story of today.

It is not usually common, especially for a member of parliament belonging to a ruling party to come out this forcefully. One could probably speculate that there is a very high possibility that some of these mines could have very close connections with some people in power, and even in the police service. Because how else would one explain this phenomenon where police would actually go to the extent of patrolling mines, at the expense of the public, if the same were not on account of the close arrangement with the powers that be? It is easier for one to entertain such thoughts, especially if they have some appreciable understanding of how things operate in this country.

And the police must actually explain, especially their senior officials, in terms of what is in it for them to warrant them to place so much focus on patrolling the private mines, much to the annoyance of the member of parliament.

If anything, common wisdom will dictate that these mines should have a lot of money to ensure adequate security around their premises rather than placing their security hopes on this one and only vehicle, which in fact is not even enough to secure the infinite security needs of the residents. And to imagine that the same is happening in an area which has witnessed a spate of killings in recent days, is just plain shocking.

Chilundika must be very familiar with everything that is at play to have come out in the manner he has. Therefore, even if he does not have the power to command the police as he is claiming, at least we urge them to take his concerns seriously.

Let the CDF police vehicle service its intended purpose of conducting patrols in communities, rather than serving the private interests of mining companies, who can at least sacrifice from their wealth to cater for some of their pressing security needs, given the inadequacies in the police. What with the many privileges they are enjoying, especially the bigger mines, in terms of a very good tax regime, where they don’t even pay as much from the precious wasting resource they are digging and selling at historically high global prices.