Cops bemoan lack of promotion, uniforms

Some police officers in the Central Region have complained that lack of promotion and good uniforms demotivate them.

Speaking during junior officers’ Christmas and New Year party on Saturday night, sub-inspector Aubrey Makonyola said some officers have served more than 10 years with a clean record yet they have never been promoted.

He added that it also takes a long time for the Malawi Police Service (MPS) management to give them new uniforms.

Makonyola said: “When one joins the Malawi Police Service, he or she expects to go up in terms of ranks. There are many police officers who have been in the service for over 10 years and they have a very good record, but they have not been promoted even once. Furthermore, we lack police uniforms. On behalf of junior police officers, I plead with top management to look into these issues and help us.”

Reacting to the concerns, Senior Deputy Commissioner for the Central Region Hannings Mlotha said he will present and discuss the raised issues with management. He admitted that there are police officers who deserve promotion for their clean record and hard-working spirit.

“In 2015, Central Region police have managed to reduce the crime rate by 4.5 percent. We attribute this success to junior police officers whom you see in roundabouts, streets and many other places. Therefore, we will ensure that they work happily by considering the issues they have raised. I will present these issues to top management so that we promote some police officers and ensure that they have good resources such as uniforms,” he said.

According to Mlotha, the recommended interval for a police officer to receive a new uniform is one year.

He, however, said in some circumstances, a police officer can get a new uniform if the previous one is in bad condition before the year ends. n