Mozambique’s police General Commander Bernardino Rafael raised heads last week by saying that there are high-ranking cops who are getting in the way of normal policing work.
As such, Rafael’s solution was to compulsory retire them. To be fair, these are police who have been in the force since independence in 1975. However, he himself is way past his retirement.
Rafael has clocked 46 years of service and he is two years from turning 65, the national statutory retirement age is 60. It so happens that retirement should occur after 35 years of service, according to a decree regulating Mozambique’s Republic Police (PRM) rank and file members.
Rafael was promoted to the rank of General Commander in 2017 for his four-year term. If the first promotion went according to law, the second term was problematic because he was way past his retirement after clocking 40 years of service – the current term will run up to 2025.
Comment
At fist glance, Rafael’s reforms could seem to be an attempt to reorganise the PRM. However, it seems as though he wants to remove high-ranking officers who were initially promoted by formers presidents Joaquim Chissano and Armando Guebuza.
First, Rafael proceeded to promote his allies to the police general command, whose years of service average 47, and, consequently, way past their retirement ages. So, it is disingenuous of him to suggest that the other high-ranking officers are too long in the tooth and just get in the way of policing work, when he is the same age or more and has side-lined them from operations.
Second, he said that there were ballooning the PRM’s payroll. However, retired high-ranking officers are still paid the same as others in active duty. So, this points out at some other objective rather than a genuine wish to cut the pecuniary fat from the payroll.
Which brings us to what might be behind the drive to retire the high-ranking officers.
Police watchers point out Rafael’s ethnic background to explain why he was returned to a second four-year term at the helm of police way beyond what the statutes would ethically allow: he is from the Makonde ethnic group, the same as President Filipe Nyusi, who is rumoured to be salivating for a third term.
Consequently, it makes sense for Nyusi to have a trusted ally leading the police during the critical period up to the end of his current and final five-year term as president – analysts point out that Nyusi will attempt to use the ruling Frelimo’s two-thirds in parliament to change the Constitution in order to secure a third term.
In this scenario, Rafael would command the police to crack down on any dissent to Nyusi’s third term wishes. Observers point to the 18 March police brutal crack down on peaceful protests was a dry run of what is likely to come.
Thus, getting rid of high-rankng officers supposedly loyal to formers presidents Chissano and Guebuza would aid in ensuring that the police force would fall behind Rafael’s command.
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