Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (General Laws Amendment) Regulations, 2024
From 1 January 2025 police and prison officers serve 30 years instead of 20 before pension, retire at 60 rather than 55, and can be kept on to 65 and then 70 — with a new power to dismiss for poor performance.
Made under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act and effective 1 January 2025, these regulations rewrite the retirement rules for the Police Force and the Prisons and Correctional Service.
Under the Police Act, the pensionable service qualification in section 22(1)(b) rises from 20 years to 30. The Commissioner may, on twelve months' written notice, require a Regular Force member whose pensionable service will then be 30 years or more to retire, and a member so notified may leave earlier on three months' notice.
Retirement is at midnight on the member's sixtieth birthday whatever their length of service. But the Commissioner may direct a medically fit member to serve a further five years to 65 where it is in the public interest, and the Minister may then direct a further five years to 70 — with a hard stop at 70. A member appointed before the effective date on pensionable terms keeps a pensionable age of 50 unless they elect to retire at 60, in which case earlier departure counts as retirement under subsection (2).
A new subsection makes clear that none of this stops the Commissioner terminating the employment of a member who has failed to perform their duties or is no longer suitable for the Force.
The Prisons and Correctional Service Act is amended in the same shape. A correctional officer may retire on gratuity at ten years' pensionable service or on pension at 30 years, the Commissioner-General may require retirement on twelve months' notice once service will reach 30 years, retirement is at 60 with extensions to 65 by the Commissioner-General and to 70 by the Minister, and the same pensionable-age-50 saving applies to officers appointed before the effective date. Resignation under the Act's regulations is preserved, as is the power to dismiss for failure to perform.
Being Presidential Powers regulations, these are temporary measures: that Act's regulations lapse after six months unless Parliament legislates.
What changed
- Police pensionable service qualification rises from 20 to 30 years from 1 January 2025
- Retirement age moves to 60, extendable to 65 by the Commissioner and to 70 by the Minister
- Correctional officers may retire on gratuity at 10 years or on pension at 30 years, with the same 60/65/70 ladder
- Members appointed before the effective date keep a pensionable age of 50 unless they elect 60
- A new power confirms dismissal for failure to perform is unaffected by the retirement rules
Who this affects
- Serving members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police
- Correctional officers in the Prisons and Correctional Service
- Officers approaching 55 or 60 who had planned to retire
- Pension administrators for the uniformed services
Plain-language summary — not legal advice. Always read the full instrument.