The Malawi Police Service (MPS) directive to offer free guard services to all Catholic Church institutions has triggered mixed reactions, Nation on Sunday has established.
While some commentators fear the directive will burden taxpayers, others say the move will help tackle security breaches in Catholic establishments.
A communication circulated to the police commanders nationwhide which Nation on Sunday has seen reads in part: “It has been directed that from today 07/01/2022, we will start providing free night guard services from 1800 hours to 0600 hours the following day to all Catholic installations and institutions.
“Every station should quickly document the list of such installations and institutions in their jurisdiction and send them to SDCP [Compol HR] latest by 1400 hours today. All lower formations with Catholic installations and institutions will also have to provide these free guard services.”
Nation on Sunday has established that the Catholic Church of Malawi has 230 parishes spread across its eight dioceses.
In an interview on Saturday, Mzuzu University governance peace and security specialist Eugenio Njoloma said considering that the Catholic Church is a private establishment, it is out of order to be offered police security.
However, he said considering that the Church has significantly contributed towards the provision of social services in the country, the police offer could be justifiable.
Said Njoloma: “The Catholic Church has done a lot in ensuring provision of social services to Malawians; they support the education and health sectors and many more. On that perspective, you would say the decision to offer the security services is theoretically necessary.”
Njoloma cautioned that offering entirely free services might have implications on MPS operations.
He argued: “The question is: will the police be able to provide those services without suffocating some operations? If you look at the numbers of police officers, the ratio [to the population] is already bad.
“Again logistically, do the police have enough vehicles, human resources and firearms to commit to such services? I don’t think so. Are we not going to end up deploying prosecutors and consequently affecting court cases?”
Njoloma asked the police to review the offer and secure a deal in which the Catholic Church will be contributing towards the logistics of the operation which could lessen pressure on public services.
But national police spokesperson James Kadadzera in an interview said the initiative is operational in the Eastern Region only where there are fighting a spate of robbery incidents.
He said: “In the past few weeks, some Catholic institutions were hit by criminals in Eastern Region so police management decided to provide guard services to all institutions in those areas to stop the break-ins and at the same time, to conduct the investigations in order to arrest the suspects.”
Kadadzera dismissed suggestions that the offer would stifle their funding, arguing that police officers will not be paid night allowances for their involvement.
He said: “This is a police initiative. Our mandate is to protect life and property so we don’t expect any officer to say no because they will not be receiving allowances. It is not a private duty because it is not the Catholic Church which has hired us.”
Kadadzera stated that they will cut off the services once the suspects who have been terrorising the church have been arrested.
In an interview, Catholic Church spokesperson Father Henry Saindi said though they have not received official communication from the police, they welcome the initiative.
He said: “We have really suffered some security problems in our institutions. So, the police intervention is commendable. However, our security agencies must ensure that all Malawians are protected and not only Catholic institutions.
“The insecurity we are suffering at our institutions is due to security lapses in the country. Every Malawian deserves to be secure.”
Meanwhile, the Evangelical Association of Malawi general secretary Francis Mkandawire has also welcomed the police intervention, saying it will ensure that security is guaranteed in Catholic institutions.
He, however, advised the police to ensure that protection of those institutions should not be at the expense of vulnerable people who also need police security.
In September 2020, thieves broke into Eastern Region Mangochi Catholic Church where they stole holy Eucharist, a representation of the body of Christ, and other valuables.
St Peter’s Major Seminary in Zomba in the Eastern Region was also reportedly attacked recently while Thunga Parish in Thyolo, Southern Region, came under attack twice in a under a month.
