An appraisal of the mandate of the Police Public Complaints Authority(PPCA)
Date
2013-04-23
Authors
Bulaka, Tizyo Mary
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Abstract
The Police Public Complaints Authority (PPCA) is a national protection mechanism for human rights in Zambia. It was established in 1997 to investigate complaints against actions of the members of the Zambia Police Service (ZPS) that result in human rights violations. However, the PPCA has failed to fully implement its mandate in the past eight years. As a result, it has failed to put sufficient checks and balances on the members of the ZPS. Such has been attributed to various factors such as the legal, economic, political, administrative and historical factors. These have been held to have hampered the PPCA from fully implementing its mandate. Consequently, it has been held to be ineffective and inefficient. Thereby, there has been a continued increase in the human rights violations by the members of the ZPS. This calls for concerted efforts to improve the authority as an institution of good governance and rule of law. Much can be learnt from the developments at the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) as there are significant differences between the PPCA and the ICD. The ICD seems to have more muscle than the PPCA. Hence, there is need to bring out the essential features in that jurisdiction. Therefore, the Mung'omba Draft Constitution and the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP) if adopted will have a positive impact on the mandate of the PPCA as it will eliminate some of the factors that are hampering the PPCA such as the legal, economic and administrative factors. Thus, one expects a PPCA that will be able to respond to the changing needs of Society.
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Police Administration-Zambia , Police Complaints Against-Zambia , Police Management