SARPCCO EXTOLS FRANCIS NDLOVU

......as Zambia Police mints a gold medal

By Timothy Malumo

Swaziland Prime Minister, His Excellency Honourable, Dr. Barnabas Sibusitso Dlamini has paid tribute to former Zambia Police Inspector General, Mr Francis Ndlovu for his immense contribution towards the creation of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO).

Meanwhile, the Zambia Police came out victorious in the chess category in which they minted gold through Constable Gillian Bwalya.

Addressing over 1,500 police officers from the 12 SARPCCO member countries during the official opening of the 9^th edition of 2015 SARPCCO games at Mavuso Trade Centre Stadium in Manzini town of Swaziland, Dr. Dlamini thanked the former police chiefs that gathered 20 years ago to create the regional body that was conceived in Swaziland and birthed in Zimbabwe.

Dr. Dlamini noted that SARPCCO had made a lot of contribution to the strengthening of safety and security frameworks through provision of a viable mechanism for regional cooperation and collaboration in combating transnational and allied crimes perpetrated in and across member countries.

“In appreciating the effectiveness of SARPCCO, it is only right to recognise the pioneering role of some selected police chiefs to the formation of this regional organisation,” he said.

Among the pioneers pointed out were Mr Francis Ndlovu who was Inspector General of the Zambia Police from 1994 to 2000, Mr Dolphin Chihuri who is still Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Republican Police, who is referred to as the Dean of SARPCCO due to his long association with the organisation.

Others are former Police Chiefs from Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

And speaking earlier, SARPCCO Chairperson, who is also National Commissioner of the South African Police Service; Mrs Mwangashi Victoria Phiyega said that SARPCCO games play an expressive role in assisting the organisation to undermine all forms of ills such as racial discrimination, xenophobia and discrimination based on disability and gender.

The Zambian delegation participated in three sports disciplines namely Netball, Chess and Tennis. All the three teams managed to grab a medal in their respective sports disciplines.

In chess, Constable Bwalya raised the Zambian flag high when he emerged overall winner in the individual category thereby minting gold.

After nine rounds of play, Bwalya and representatives of Angola and Zimbabwe had seven points each and a tie breaker came to action with bliss to separate the three. Bwalya beat two of his opponents to be crowned 2015 SARPCCO games individual chess champion.

In netball, Zambia came out second with Zimbabwe being the gold medallist while the host Swaziland found themselves in the third position.

The only tennis player for Zambia, Sergeant Ogar Siamupangila managed to win for Zambia a bronze medal.

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