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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Reporter
He left Inyathi Secondary School in Matabeleland North Province as a teenager to fight to liberate Zimbabwe and the memories of this period still haunt him.

After independence he has travelled across the country serving the nation as a police officer.

This is the life of police Officer Commanding Bulawayo Province, Commissioner Patton Mbangwa, who has been a cop since the birth of Zimbabwe in 1980.

The tag “nomadic policeman” aptly describes the life of Commissioner Mbangwa who came from humble beginnings in Plumtree and has traversed Zimbabwe, gathering knowledge and experience that has led him to be at the helm of policing in Bulawayo Province.

Born and bred in Sanzukwi area, Mangwe District, Matabeleland South Province he did his primary education at Sanzukwi Primary and attended Inyathi Secondary before joining the liberation struggle in 1977.

At Independence Commissioner Mbangwa joined the Zimbabwe Republic Police as a constable stationed at Gweru Central.

That marked the beginning of his nomadic journey around the country during which he rose through the ranks.

After promotion to the rank of sergeant while in Gweru Central, he was transferred to Gweru Rural and promoted to be a patrol officer.

Thereafter he was posted to Munhumutapa Building in Harare and later returned to Gweru Central again.

Commissioner Mbangwa was then promoted to Assistant Inspector and swiftly an Inspector and sent to Mataga in Mberengwa, in the Midlands Province.

Commissioner Mbangwa was then posted to Bulawayo Central Police Station and elevated to Superintendent before moving to Victoria Falls in Matabeleland North Province as Deputy Commanding District under Chief Superintendent Alexio Paradzai.

He was then transferred to Nkayi in Matabeleland North Province but the district was headquartered in Bulawayo at Southampton Building.

This is where he met the current Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Inspector Abednico Ncube.

Thereafter Commissioner Mbangwa was transferred to Lupane to be acting officer commanding Lupane District.

He then got promoted to Chief Superintendent in 2006 and transferred to police general headquarters as Staff Officer Human Resources Administration.

In 2009 he was deployed for peacekeeping in South Sudan, and on his return in 2010 he was redeployed as Officer Commanding District Harare Suburban until 2013.

He was then promoted to Assistant Commissioner, and deployed to Marondera in Mashonaland East.

Beginning of 2015 he was transferred to Harare under the National Lands Inspectorate heading the team until 2018.

He was then promoted to Senior Assistant Commissioner and deployed to Matabeleland North as the officer commanding the province.

At the same time the rank of Senior Assistant Commissioner was abolished and replaced by Commissioner and that’s when he was transferred to Bulawayo in 2019 as Officer Commanding the province.

In an interview, Commissioner Mbangwa revealed little about the time he was in the war, saying he was not ready to share what he experienced.

“My school days were interrupted during the liberation struggle.

We had to also join it and that was in 1977.

Well, some of the experiences . . . I’m not at liberty to discuss them at the moment.

But those were some of the things that we went through,” said Commissioner Mbangwa.

While moving around Zimbabwe he learnt that his country, men and women are enterprising and cherish honesty and hard work.

“I have traversed the width and breadth of this country especially under the land inspectorate.

We visited all the provinces of Zimbabwe.

I’m quite versed with Zimbabwe,” he said.

“Zimbabweans are hardworking.

They want honest people especially from our side as police.

They want us to be honest people who will give them good advice and who are friendly.

“I was also part of the Command Agriculture where I interacted with quite a number of people.

Zimbabweans are enterprising as it were,” said Commissioner Mbangwa.

He encouraged his subordinates to shun corruption and wants the public to trust the police.

“We are fighting corruption by talking to people and talking to our members.

We have made it a point that whatever it is, where someone in managerial post who has at least someone under him, we should always talk about corruption.

“We should encourage each other to know the nature of our work to actually be serving members of the public.

They should be our friends, they should feel free when they see us,” said Commissioner Mbangwa.

When he started his job in Bulawayo in 2019, Commissioner Mbangwa said he instilled a zero tolerance on corruption and there were people who would phone him when they were found on the wrong side of the law.

“But of course, what you say with word of mouth is very different to what someone does.

We always tell our members to shun corruption and live within their means, rather than to aspire to what you don’t have resources for.

As a result, it becomes a very big problem,” said Commissioner Mbangwa.

“People will always try and I was a new man then (2019), and people didn’t know how serious I was when it came to my work.

Most probably they were thinking that they would be able to convince me otherwise.

Once they got to see that talking to me was a waste of time, it has subsequently gone away.

“When somebody phones and asks for favours, I tell them that if you have been arrested, really what do you expect me to do? Just go through the system, rather than ask me to try to give you some special dispensation.

That is one of my strongest points anyway,” said Commissioner Mbangwa.

Watch the full interview on the Chronicle Zimbabwe YouTube page.

— Follow on Twitter @bonganinkunzi