Claim
On Sunday, 13th august 2022, the Smart Eagles Facebook page published an article containing a list alleged to be names of police officers who had been retired or redeployed. Similar articles were also published in various other Facebook pages. The reports claimed the list – which was not on official letterhead and was not stamped – had been released by the Zambia Police Service Commission. Some of the articles went on to allege that the police officers on the list had been retired or redeployed because they were aligned to the opposition Patriotic Front party, with some describing them as “PF cadres in police uniform who killed, gassed and caused mayhem”.
Rating Justification
The fact checking has determined as false the claim that PF cadres in police uniform who killed, gassed and caused mayhem have been retired. The list in circulation has not been released by any government agency.
The government, through the Ministry of Information and Media Director Spokesperson Mr. Thabo Kawana also dismissed the document as fake. In a video message, and a follow up message to iVerify, Mr Kawana said “the list doing the rounds is fake… as can be seen it is not domiciled on any headed paper signifying that it is not a government document”. The list shared online is not on headed paper, is not stamped and does not have a name of the person who signed it. Mr Kawana said if something like that were to be done, the nation would be informed accordingly using proper channels and authentic documents. In his message, Mr Kawana appealed to citizens “to desist from circulating fake documents on social media, documents that can cause panic, and cause alarm in the nation” and cautioned that “circulation of false information in the media and deliberately so is an offence”. He encouraged people to “not get carried away and publicise information that is not correct”.
Based on the official government position as given by the Ministry of Information, the fact checking process has therefore determined that the claims around the alleged list of retired or redeployed police officers is false.
