As
I go to school every single day, l take the emergency taxi popularly known as
“khombis” or “umtshova” in Ndebele. This is an 18 seater vehicle used as a mode
of transport for people without their own cars or means of transport. Honestly,
I love and hate this mode of transport. I love the company l get there, the
conversations that the people always have, especially the old and drunk people,
sometimes little feuds between the conductors and the passengers. Its unbelievably
awesome. The worst part comes when some passengers act like they own the seat
they are sitting on and refuse to move over and give space to others because in
these vehicles we are expected to sit in fours. So when they do that I get hard-pressed
and clothes crease, there are also instances when some people eat in there,
their juice spills over on you or whatever they are eating. Mixture of all
types of deodorants, cheap or expensive. Some I will be allergic to.It gets
stuffy too. I would go on and on about things that l hate about ETs.
On
our way to the Central Business District (CBD) there is a roadblock that we
stop at every single morning and the conductor jumps out with a little bit of
cash to give to the traffic police. It is now a routine such that vehicles stop
even when they are not signalled to because they know they have to give the
traffic police their daily bribes. These officers take the money and from what
l have heard, they share it amongst themselves.
I
am totally disgusted by that because the traffic police no longer feel obliged
to check the cars and see if drivers have licenses or not or if the vehicle is
in a good condition to be ferrying people. It seems the basic principle of
safety that the police should be working towards achieving is nullified upon
reception of a mere $10 note. The lives of the passengers are put at risk
because the officers have overlooked their obligation to the country and to
society, which is to protect.
These
are our everyday roadblocks. Then there are those ones that commuter omnibuses
or Emergency Taxis(ETs) run away from
because if they don’t have the necessary requirements, they are required
to pay about $50(not sure of the figures but last time l checked that was the
fine).These are really deadly especially for us passengers. When these kind of
roadblocks are on our roads ETs run from these traffic Police using other
routes like the bush or other roads that are no longer in use.
There
was once a time when the Police BMW would chase these ETs with people inside.it
literally felt like or looked like it was need for speed. But why chase a
vehicle when you can simply take down the vehicle registration number and hunt
it down.I guess they will be chasing
after money at the expense of the safety of the people. What these BMW cops did
not realise is that their fellow traffic cops are not doing their jobs proper
that’s why we have all these incidents of people driving without licenses and
having cars that are not road worthy still on our roads.
For
those who use Luveve Road, l am pretty sure that most of us have seen two
incidents of ETs bursting into flames on the road, not that they have been
bombed or anything but simply because they are no longer road worthy or they
have not been serviced in a while. Are the traffic police so oblivious of the
fact that they are amplifying road accidents because of their greed?
There
are certain vehicles in our roads that are not stopped at these roadblocks
because they belong to certain Police officers. Being a police officer whether
traffic or not definitely does not place you above the law. Remember in
Zimbabwe we have a RULE OF LAW which says no one is above the law. Somebody
give the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) a copy on human rights that talks about
the rule of law!!! I am pretty sure they don’t know what Rule of law is and
they don’t think it applies to them or they think they make the rules and laws
of the land. DISCLAIMER:ZRP ENFORCES THE LAW AND DEFINITELY DOES NOT MAKE THE
LAWS OF THIS LAND!!
The
most touching event that was witnessed as a result of the reckless ZRP was of
an ET that overturned and injured 16 innocent passengers as the driver tried to
avoid spikes that where thrown on the road by the police. Surely, these police
officers should know that for one throwing spikes at a vehicle that is in full
speed is likely to cause an accident, but to throw spikes at a vehicle which is
in full speed and is fully loaded with people is purely catastrophic. That is
mere lack of one basic thing “common sense”.
I
am disgusted by the Zimbabwean police force particularly the traffic cops. They
are fraudsters hiding in uniforms, daylight robbers, robbing civilians of their
safety and their hard earned cash.
Commissioner
General of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Cde Augustine Chihuri. Are you aware
of all this?
Do
you know that in Bulawayo when people board ETs at 6th Avenue and
the ET full of people is taken to a police station, all the people in the ET
are required to pay $5 each. Failure to do so results in an individual being
locked up for the night in a prison cell.
We
are no longer safe on our roads because the traffic cops are not doing their
job. ZRP please, you can do better than that!!
a good one indeed
ReplyDeleteI am totally in agreement with all this and sadly, I have to add that this is one of those multifaceted problems where one of the root causes, meagre salaries for traffic police, really needs to be addressed! Traffic police lack incentive (money is an incentive) to be loyal to the law and their jobs, their priority is making more money to be able to provide for themselves, for their families, or to buy their own private cars or whatever else they believe they need. Speaking in strictly economic terms, if the government was to raise their salaries by the cumulative amount of the bribes they receive, and then set apart a portion of revenue from kombi fines to ZRP salaries I believe this problem would be somewhat resolved. For now, all we can do is appeal to the moral values of cops to do the right thing, and maybe and sadly, that could be asking for too much!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you but don't you think that to a certain extent this accepting bribes issue has become a culture for the ZRP? Even if they get salary increments l think they would still collect bribes from the motorists maybe the price would even be higher in-order to feed into their newly obtained standard of living. I think this is not going to go away unless drastic measures are taken against these officials. They should be arrested or even demoted or fired if they collect bribes and motorists should also report such incidences in-order to reduce levels of corruption on our roads.
ReplyDelete