Chihuri Fleeces Motorists
28 January 2017
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Dear Commissioner-General (Dr) Augustine Chihuri,
It is not often that your good office is addressed this way, but that we have resorted to this route might be an indication of the gravity of the matter at hand.

It is no longer a laughing matter. It is one of national importance.

The presence of the police on our roads, highways, motorways etc has reached proportions that it would be a miscarriage of justice if we keep quite about it.

Should we do so, our children will find us guilty, not by commission but by omission.

The police force has worked over the years to build its reputation.

But it is a sure bet that in the past year given their presence and penchant for fining people left, right and centre this behaviour might have eroded public confidence in the force.

Let’s be practical, Commissioner-General, lest you might think we are using emotions here.

How does one explain four roadblocks between Harare Drive, which marks the boundary of Harare, and Mazowe, a distance of less than 40km? An average of a roadblock every 10km!

The first of these roadblocks is right by Marlborough Police Station, which is understandable: a security check point for what is going or leaving the capital city.

Then either side of the Eskbank tollgate, either just after the National Defence College or just at Eskbank Farm, is the second of the roadblocks.

This is usually the mobile highway patrol team. If you miss them there, you are bound to meet them by the Christon Bank turn-off.

The third of the roadblocks is by Henderson Research Station, which has morphed into a 24-hour operation. Then comes the fourth at Mazowe Citrus Estate.

If you are proceeding the Bindura way, there are bound to be some more, as well as on the Mvurwi Highway.

This high presence of police officers on the highway is not confined to this route, but I have cited it because it is a road I use regularly.

Between Harare and Bulawayo, the country’s two major urban settlements which by their standing have high vehicular and human traffic, the number of roadblocks is too numerous to count.

Entering and exiting an urban settlement, one is bound to meet a set of traffic police officers, and most of the time, asking for the same things or after the same offences that would have been asked at the previous blocks.

The same presence of police officers replicates itself between Bulawayo and Victoria Falls, the country’s major tourist destination.

Turn the other side of Harare driving to Mutare the same can be said of the presence of police officers.

For a country as peaceful as Zimbabwe, for a citizenry that is struggling to eke out a decent livelihood, which is made all the more difficult by cash shortages, and for a motorist who has to contend with a potholed roads, this makes travelling a nightmare. Your chief spin doctor, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba, will be quick to respond that potholes have nothing to do with the police force and that the force is simply meeting its constitutional mandate. But introspection asks of all of us: what we are doing for Zimbabwe’s image?

To fine a motorist, who is a tourist to the country, for his rented vehicle for not having “honey-comb” reflectors is surely not the best way to market Zimbabwe.

Neither does it augur well for our economy that an informal trader who is moving to and from agricultural markets can be fined for his vehicle not having the gross vehicle mass or net vehicle mass displayed.

Fine, we know all these misdemeanours are contained in legislative material, and it is up to us, the electorate, to ask our MPs to review them.

But what does common sense entail?

What would be wrong with a police officer, on noticing that a vehicle’s number plate lights are not functioning, advising, warning and cautioning the motorist that at your next destination, please attend to this anomaly?

Why the inclination to fine there and then?

Commissioner-General, it is not just the presence of the police officers on the highway that is disconcerting: it is their behaviour; their lack of respect; their assumption that every motorist is guilty; that every motor vehicle has a defect; that everyone must pay a spot fine.

Even as the officers stop you, the body language and demeanour tell you that you are in trouble before any question has been asked or answered.

And is it by mere coincidence that police officers seem to have exchanged their baton sticks for spikes? That memo must have missed our attention.

Compare the attitude of our police officers with those of neighbouring countries. In South Africa and Botswana, for instance, the officers are ever-smiling, courteous and if they are to fine you, for sure you would have committed road traffic offence worthy of such a punishment.

And in the said countries, wherever they mount a roadblock, some distance before, you are warned that you are approaching such a stoppage, which gives you time to prepare, mentally or otherwise.

There are signs, and if it is night time, the signs are reflective, giving the motorist enough warning of an impending police stop.

Contrast this with Zimbabwe scenario, the aforementioned Henderson Research Station roadblock, in spite of it being mounted well into the night, is hardly visible after dark.

It takes a motorist who is a frequent traveller on the road to know that there is always a roadblock.

Whoever told the police that their drums, the ones they use to block the road, should be painted black and white? Whilst this might work during the day, at night it just doesn’t add up! Reflectors are needed.

Same with the Norton roadblock, just by the service station.

There are other considerations. We are in election season. What is the behaviour of the police force doing to the electorate? Are we not creating discontent against the ruling establishment?

There is no nation that can do without policing. The police are an integral part of any state. But it looks like we have taken policing to a different level in Zimbabwe.

We would understand the tactics as employed by speed trap police officers, it is a trap, so it supposed to catch a motorist who is driving above the speed limit.

But when every traffic officer decides to play hide-and-seek with motorists, choosing street corners, bushy areas and highway bends to mount roadblocks, that indicates a desire to merely fine motorists rather than to promote order.

Then the seriousness, or lack thereof, of the offences, makes many believe that it is all a fund-raising gimmick.

This is the same hard-pressed citizenry, which has to contend with long hours at the bank, that is asked to hand over the little it has to the police.

We are talking here of a citizenry that is well-mannered, well-cultured, well-disposed. Getting into the car every morning to get to work has become a headache. Which roads to use? Which are likely NOT to have roadblocks? What to say when you encounter them?

Who looks forward to driving to Victoria Falls when one is assured of encountering at least a dozen roadblocks?

Who will bother driving to KwaMereki, a normal weekend routine, when that drive is to be met with five roadblocks on potholed roads?

It takes the cheer the away.

In conclusion, I have written you as Commissioner-General because of the level of desperation and frustration we have reached. No one seems to care in the police force.

Is this the kind of legacy that Commissioner-General (Dr) Chihuri would like to leave for Zimbabweans, that his police force has been so menacing, so heartless on the highways?

What we ask of you, Commissioner-General, is change in tact, change in approach.

This is our Zimbabwe, the only country millions of us will ever know, and we would like to live, enjoy and be buried here.

But our police officers, traffic police officers, are not making this life an enjoyable life. We are not criminals. We are law-abiding, taxpaying people trying to get from one day to the next with as little fuss as possible.

 Yours Sincerely,

Garikai Mazara

Extra Editor

0 Replies to “Chihuri Fleeces Motorists”

  1. Chihuri, like every one in ZanuPF, are doing as much looting in the remaining time as possible – common sense and fairness and the real law are non existent therefore! This is going to continue, with as much haste, until Mugabe is gone and the whole rotten lot are replaced with competent people.

  2. Even during the height of the war in the 70s did we see such high volumes of roadblocks.

  3. Can the learned Dr Commissioner educate his police force that It Is NOT A CRIME in Zimbabwe to drive without any cash in your pocket. Citizens are being detained unnecessarily at road blocks and thousands valuable production man hours are lost each day because motorists will not be carrying cash to pay spot fines.
    Dr Commissioner we are promoting a cashless society in Zimbabwe by encouraging the use of plastic and electronic monetary transactions. So please don’t let your police officers restrain us from keeping pace with the rest of the civilized society.

  4. Please take note Commissioner General. With the exception of a minority of police officers the ZRP is like a bandit force. I must however acknowledge this police officer who stopped me just outside Best Bridge as I drove my little exJap towards Masvingo en route to Mutare. I expected trouble so soon out of Beit Bridge but I was in for a pleasant surprise. He was courteous and friendly. He advised me against speeding especially with the tyres such as had come with the vehicle which posed grave danger. He wished me a safe journey and I drove off with a smile on my face and I wished all of them we’re like this. He didn’t see a criminal, and he had no reason to for I am certainly not one, but a fellow human being. Unfortunately I can’t remember his name.

  5. Well said. But who listens. ZRP has become one pf the easiest revenue stream for the broke establishment.
    In other countries you can travel to your destination without seeing any road block.
    I lived and worked in the UK for 10 years. Never found a roadblock. My work reqiired a lot of driving so I travelled length and breath of it.
    The police will only stop you if they have no doubt a crime has been commited. Or for advisory purposes eg a non working tail light which you may not have noticed.
    Again no fine for that. Just advice to have it fixed.
    Not in Zim where fire extinguishers reflectors even malfunctioning windows are fined and on the spot…..
    And cabinet says its crafting new laws on easing how to do business. Who would want to invest in a country where spot fines are a reccuring expense to a company. Lol