CHOMBA MUSIKA, Choma
SOUTHERN Province commissioner of Police Mary Chikwanda has advised wives of police officers to be role models in society by desisting from engaging in vices such as gender-based violence.
Ms Chikwanda said police officer’s wives should strive to be disciplined considering that their spouses hail from a disciplined institution.
She said this in Choma on Thursday during a police officers’ wives seminar aimed at sensitising the women on human rights, gender equality and gender-based violence.
“As police officers’ wives, you are supposed to be a shining example by being disciplined, not engaging in vices such as GBV.
“You are supposed to exhibit exemplary behaviour as your spouses belong to a disciplined institution…you should also work hard and improve your living standards,” Ms Chikwanda said.
She said the seminar is timely because her office has realised that police officers’ wives lack knowledge on numerous issues affecting them in society because awareness campaigns do not reach police camps.
“It’s for this reason that  the provincial command has thought it wise to organise a seminar for police officers’ wives aimed at creating awareness on human rights, gender-based violence and entrepreneurship  and other issues that make women and children vulnerable in society,” Ms Chikwanda said.
She urged the women to take advantage of the seminar to equip themselves with knowledge on how to protect themselves from being victims of gender-violence and other ills of society.
Earlier, Zambia Police Service community service directorate coordinator Edward Simukonde said the seminar was also aimed at giving women a platform to openly speak out against ills that are affecting the wellbeing of their families.
“There are a lot of things happening in our families, let’s feel free to share,” Mr Simukonde said.
Meanwhile the wife of a Zambia Police assistant superintendent Mrs Matilda Sichembe observed that police officers’ wives do not report abusive husbands to police to protect their spouse’s jobs.
Mrs Sichembe, of Livingstone Police camp notes that some police officers’ wives also do not report abusive husbands to police for fear of being ridiculed by society in an event that their spouses are relieved of their jobs.
“They say a police officer’s wife is also a police officer, so police officers’ wives fear to report their husbands to police because they are law enforcers and it would be embarrassing to report them”.
“Others fear that their husbands will lose their jobs if reported to police; others fear to bring disunity in their families or being divorced,” Mrs Sichembe said.