MINISTER of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo has ordered police officers never to succumb to lawlessness.

Meanwhile, Kampyongo has insisted that the only people who should be scared of the Cyber Security Bill are criminals.

At a press briefing, Monday, Kampyongo said daring police would not be tolerated.

“When a police officer is in a combat, it must be understood that they have got a duty to do. And so daring the police will certainly not be tolerated. And those who are leaders of those cadres who misbehaved in that manner should take responsibility and advise them accordingly. To the police, they must do their work without fear or favour. You are mandated to discharge your functions and therefore you should never, at any given time succumb to lawlessness. Ensure that you prevail over lawlessness at all times because the only threat we have to democracy and freedom is lawlessness and therefore it’s important that the police prevail over lawlessness in all times within the law,” Kampyongo said.

“I want to just echo the sentiments of the Inspector General of Police regarding the political violence that we saw recently. Yes, the police have got a duty to protect every citizen and they have got a responsibility to ensure that those who are in the political arena conduct their activities within the confines of the law. And so the activities we saw on Friday during the commemoration of the Youth Day fall short of what is expected from the members of the public. And like the Inspector General said, we as government have done our part to procure the equipment necessary, equipment for the police to utilise in different situations. So we certainly wouldn’t want to see such activities take place.”

And Kampyongo guided those applying for jobs in the service on the correct channels.

“You may wish to recall that the Zambia Police Service issued an advertisement in the press on the 28th of February 2021 calling for interested candidates to apply for recruitment as Zambia Police constables. The total number of constables to be recruited as permitted by the treasury authority is 1,200. It should be made clear that the Zambia Police Service has decentralised the recruitment process to provincial level and what this therefore means is that no applications shall be entertained at the Ministry of Home Affairs headquarters and not even the Zambia Police Service headquarters and so all the prospecting candidates are therefore requested to submit their application letters to the Office of the Zambia Police service provincial commissioners in all the 10 provinces,” he said.

“All the applications coming to the ministry and police headquarters will not be considered.”

He added that government is trying to enhance transparency and ensure all the provinces benefited from the recruitment

“Government in the recent times has noted with great concern some of the assertions that have been made by some sections of society that the recruitment of security personnel was not transparent. It is in this regard that the Zambia police service has made the exercise transparent, accountable and accessible by all eligible candidates in all the provinces,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kampyongo said the only people who should be afraid of the Cyber Security Bill are criminals.

“So don’t be deceived by anyone going to social media an that’s why it’s pleasing now that the long awaited for Cyber Security Bill which went through Parliament will become piece of law and like I have said before, the only ones who should be scared or concerned about that piece of legislation are wrongdoers, lawbreakers, criminals because cyber space has become such a complicated space,” Kampyongo said.

“So the space is only tight, like I have said to wrong doers, those who are in the habit of transmitting hate speech, stripping other people liberty’s at will, and you colleagues from the media haven’t been spared. So it just calls for responsibility in the cyber space So we are trying to collaborate as a global village to ensure that no wrongdoer using cyber space has got sanctuary anywhere. So what we are doing here is exactly what is obtaining in any other progressing country. You need to have cyber space that is safe for all the citizens. And among the issues that we were discussing is the protection of children, the youths who become victims of cyberspace. So if we don’t domesticate some of the preventative measures, we may be lagging behind as a country. So there is nothing that we are doing in terms of suppressing citizens and their liberties through that piece of legislation, there is nothing for law abiding citizens to fear.”