Police boss orders compulsory vaccination

Source: Police boss orders compulsory vaccination – NewsDay Zimbabwe

BY MOSES MATENGA

POLICE Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga yesterday ordered that all members of the force should be fully vaccinated to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The police chief said this while bidding farewell to seven officers who are leaving for South Sudan on a United Nations mission, while also welcoming nine police officers who returned from the same country on tour of duty.

Matanga’s call for the country’s police officers to get fully vaccinated comes at a time when government has been threatening to withhold salaries and allowances of unvaccinated civil servants, starting this December.

“Let me also highlight that in view of the COVID-19 pandemic that has wreaked havoc globally, we are all expected to be fully vaccinated,” he said.

“Government has demonstrated its commitment by continuing to secure sufficient quantities of the vaccines so that every citizen is vaccinated and no one is left behind.”

He said the police should lead by example and be fully vaccinated.

“As public servants and also as frontliners in the fight against crime, we should take the lead in this national drive that is aimed at achieving herd immunity,” the police boss said.

Matanga said the police were actively working to achieve government’s vision 2030, as well as the implementation of the National Development Strategy 1, which he said “will take the nation halfway towards the attainment of an upper middle income economy by 2030”.

Addressing the returning cops, he said: “Now is the time to blend such experience with that of your colleagues back home as you collectively seek to make our country free from the malady of crime.

“I wish to remind you that in order to deliver on our constitutional mandate, the organisation needs loyal and dedicated officers who put their country and people first before self-comfort. The need, therefore, to perform all duties professionally and diligently can never be over-emphasised.”