Mozambican police (PRM) General-Commander Bernardino Rafael on Wednesday announced the suspension of training courses for police cadets for three years to free money for the building of brand-new police infrastructures.

The new infrastructures include new academies, police stations, district police command headquarters, among others.

The announcement is sort of strange. Rationality dictates that the announcement should have been made by the President or the Minister of the Interior, or the National Defence and Security Council, or the Council of Ministers, after a recommendation from the Joint Command, chaired by the Commander-in-Chief, who happens to be President Filipe Nyusi.

Let us for a minute discount this supposed procedural violation, why suspend the training of police cadets for three years?

First, there is an active insurgency in the northern Cabo Delgado province. Regardless of what one may think, as part of Mozambique’s Defence and Security Forces (FDS), the police force is a key element in the efforts to stem the tide of terrorism. Little wonder that Rwanda has sent police personnel in the 4000-strong contingent that is fighting the insurgents alongside the FDS and Southern African troops. The FDS comprise the PRM, the army (FADM) and the security services (SISE).

Paradoxically, the so-called local force (militia), consisting of former combatants and civilians who, since 2020, have supported the fight against the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, has received new military hardware, and benefits from state material and political support. This militia group will be active as long as the war on the insurgency rages on, and popped out allegedly from the incapacity of FDS forces to cuddle the insurgency and protect the population.

Second, this is more institutional. It is strange that police academies not only train police cadets. They train recruits for the National Immigration Service (SENAMI), the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), and the National Penitentiary Service (SENSAP), which do not have their own training schools despite having their own specific features. Bernardino decision affects the bone structure of internal affairs services.

This raises challenges regarding a rethink of a possible model for recruitment and training of nationals wishing to join such services. Should their recruitment and training remain in the hands of the PRM or should there be a macro entity which responds to and oversees the three institutions and has political responsibility over the quality of services they deliver.

But more challenging is the PRM’s own institutional corruption characterised by political nepotism, access to police recruitment in the academies, favouritism in rank promotions, and sexual harassment, which is seen as one of the major weaknesses of the PRM.

For example, the corruption of the process of access to the academies greatly favours institutions such as the ruling Frelimo party and its social bodies, which send lists of recruits in order to accommodate their relatives, mainly problematic individuals.

So, perhaps Rafael has chosen to take a breather in training new recruits to address this sad and sorry situation in the PRM.

Third, the level of infiltration of criminals into the PRM and SERNIC has been mentioned as a major concern. This is attested by the increasing involvement of police and SERNIC personnel in kidnappings and other crime against property, weakening the effort of the state in curbing crime and naturally bolsters criminal groups.

Consequently, Rafael might have taken the decision to suspend recruitment and training of police cadets in order to solve this conundrum or might have opted to do so to attempt to stymie the haemorrhaging that affects the PRM.

Regardless of his motives, the temporary closing of doors of academies to recruits affects the FDS as a whole, and it should have been a holder of political power making the announcement, since this is an information that concerns national security and bodies far away from his duties and responsibilities. This quid pro quo move (suspend to build) benefits a business mogul with ties in higher places. The fact that it was Rafael, might reveal the thinking of a group.

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