Sunday, July 3, 2022
  • About Us
  • ImagiNATION
  • Rate Card
  • Contact Us
The Nation Online
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Life & Style
    • Every Woman
      • Soul
      • Family
    • Religion
    • Feature
  • Society
  • Columns
  • Sports
  • Chichewa
  • Enation
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Life & Style
    • Every Woman
      • Soul
      • Family
    • Religion
    • Feature
  • Society
  • Columns
  • Sports
  • Chichewa
  • Enation
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
Home Feature Feature of the Week

Community policing extraordinaire

by Foster Benjamin
01/05/2020
in Feature of the Week
5 min read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on WhatsAppShare on LinkedinLinkedinShare via Email

To some, he is the defender. To others, he is the enemy. But to communities in Traditional Authority (T/A) Maseya in Chikwawa, Stanley Mangochi is their hero as he voluntarily offers security in the area.

At 49, Mangochi still cuts out his usual image, that of a tough, stern father figure who will not allow his children to “set the house on fire”. The man is not only a father of four residing in Biyason Village, he is also the second-in-charge for Maseya Community Policing Forum (CPF).

His burly figure strikes fear in cattle rustlers. His handcuff, a weapon which he treasures the most, is a legend on its own.

Mangochi, a former member of the disbanded Malawi Young Pioneers back in the 1980s in Neno, his district of origin, is a well-travelled man. This feat took him down to Chikwawa where he settled and married in 1996.

Chingwalu: He is proactive community member who deserves to be motivated

In the following years, due to his matchless ambition in security matters, he was entrusted to lead the village’s policing panel. In 2000, he rose through the ranks and found himself in the higher hierarchy of Maseya CPF, a policing bloc at senior chief level.

This feat delighted Mangochi.

However, his first job was part dramatic, part incredible. A goat went missing in the village and a search was launched.

“We found the goat already slaughtered, but heaped on top of a newborn baby,” Mangochi says. “A woman, my neighbour, who had just given birth, is the one who stole the goat. She admitted but was quickly forgiven.”

Since then, the self-styled CPF leader has made several arrests targeting livestock thieves.

Rustlers, he said bitterly, will never forgive him. Catching them is more like a game to him, one that he plays too well. He regrets nothing.

“It’s part of my calling. I don’t feel good when I see a poor villager crying over his stolen goat or cow,” says Mangochi.

His pride lies in the fact that, almost two decades volunteering his security services, he has netted almost 50 cattle thieves, and hundreds of goat rustlers.

Boasts Mangochi: “It is a milestone of sort. It is a legacy which I will leave in Chikwawa.”

Unsurprisingly, he has a string of enemies within and outside. It is not only cattle rustlers who wish him dead. Unscrupulous traders at Bereu Market in the district also dislike him because he takes them head-on, especially when they dupe unsuspecting clients.

“Every Sunday, a market day, I go around the market, singlehandedly confronting any dishonest vendor who may force a client to buy an item at an exorbitant price. Some vendors, I tell you, take advantage of the locals. So, I stop all this,” states Mangochi.

But is it his job?

Mark Munama, former coordinator of community policing in Chikwawa, says it is his job.

“So long he protects the community from dishonest vendors, he is spot-on. Mangochi is there to fight crime at community level. Tricking buyers is a crime and when he wages war against it, within the armpit of the law, then it is okay,” he says.

Mangochi’s untiring efforts in volunteering security are also commended by former Chikwawa Police Station officer-in charge Davie Chingwalu, now at Thyolo Police Station.

To him, Mangochi is “a proactive community member who deserves to be motivated by our efforts as men like him are unsung heroes of our time. Imagine, he uses his own resources to transport suspects from Maseya to the police station.”

Spending his personal resources to hire a motorcycle to ferry suspects is not uncommon to the volunteer ‘cop’ who has no bicycle.

Mangochi explains: “I wish I could have a bicycle that could see me peddling any suspect to the station. If you want to ask me how I can do it, it is not a problem.

“I can strap the suspect to myself and cycle to the station. I was doing it in the past before the bicycle, which was donated to me broke down.”

Here lies a setback. The station that Mangochi is serving cannot afford a bicycle at the meantime. Funding hiccups are a stumbling block.

“However, any donation is welcome,” says Munama who is now community policing coordinator in Chiradzulu.

To him, it is the Malawi Police Service’s wish to keep community policing structures running. “They are key to community peace, law and order,” adds Munama.

Previous Post

Firm offers business survival tips to listed firms

Next Post

Kenya football body cancels 2020 seasonand

Related Posts

Feature of the Week

Parents spur homeschooling

July 1, 2022
Feature of the Week

Soft bites for solid starts

June 30, 2022
Feature of the Week

Peacekeepers get surgical facility  

June 29, 2022
Next Post
Kukoma Diamonds (in white and red) and Tigresses (in orange) in action last season

Kenya football body cancels 2020 seasonand

Opinions and Columns

Editor's Note

MPs’ houses to cost taxpayers K60bn

July 3, 2022
My Thought

Women underutilise digital platforms

July 3, 2022
Big Man Wamkulu

Her body count is too high, should I dump her?

July 3, 2022
Search Within

We should start discussing ideas

July 3, 2022

Malawi-Music.com Top10

Trending Stories

  • Alliance partners talk

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Dubai firm cries foul

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • MP Chihana flops at Sadc elections

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Her body count is too high, should I dump her?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Chilima opens pandora’s box

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

  • Values
  • Our Philosophy
  • Editorial policy
  • Advertising Policy
  • Code of Conduct
  • Plagiarism disclaimer
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use

© 2022 Nation Publications Limited. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Life & Style
    • Every Woman
      • Soul
      • Family
    • Religion
    • Feature
  • Society
  • Columns
  • Sports
  • Chichewa
  • Enation

© 2020 Nation Publications Limited. All Rights Reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.