Source: ’10km roadblocks will fuel corruption’ – DailyNews Live
Farayi Machamire 7 April 2017
HARARE – The Tourism and Hospitality industry yesterday led a large
cross-section of Zimbabweans in condemning a government directive that
empowers police to mount one roadblock within a 10 kilometers radius,
arguing that the ill-advised decision would fuel corruption on the
country’s roads.
Curiously, police has actually increased roadblocks within the 10km zones
– a move which road users and ordinary Zimbabweans say flies in the face
of calls by lawmakers and tourism players to minimise roadblocks – which
they blame for driving away tourists and wasting productive hours.
Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo recently said police had been
instructed to de-congest roadblocks through a directive which allowed one
roadblock within a 10km radius to promote ease of doing business.
But players in the tourism sector, motorists and analysts told the Daily
News yesterday that the new directive did not address their concerns and
instead would fuel corruption.
“As the hospitality industry, we still feel the initial solution cannot
resolve the difficulties faced by tourists on the road taking into
consideration that a journey to Bulawayo of 440km you will have 44 road
blocks.
“Today (yesterday), I was travelling to Mutare I was shocked that in
Marondera town ZRP mounted five road blocks and these were within the 10km
mark.
“ZRP should also take instructions from the minister so that we become
hospitable in our roads. The police should also be taught customer care so
that they don’t harass people on the roads,” said Hospitality Association
of Zimbabwe president George Manyumwa.
A recent survey conducted by Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat)
revealed that nearly
10 000 tourists rated police services as “very poor” with half of them
vowing never to visit the country again after enduring endless harassment
at many roadblocks.
“All provincial commanders have been instructed to submit their monthly
roadblock schedules to Police General Headquarters (Operations) to ensure
effective monitoring of deployments in line with the organisational policy
of erecting roadblocks at a distance of not less than 10km apart,” Chombo
announced recently.
“One-stop-shop roadblocks, which are multi-purpose, are being implemented
to avoid duplications. Increased supervision of deployed personnel is
going to be enhanced to correct any inconsistencies with policies and
directives.
However, this has not gone down well with motorists who have launched a
campaign against the police ahead of filing a Class action at the
Constitutional Court.
“Whilst police are entitled to road blocks to maintain law and order in
terms of section 68 of the Constitution, their actions have to be
reasonable, proportionate and fair,” former Cabinet minister and Road
Users Association (RUA) lawyer, David Coltart told the Daily News.
“Setting up a roadblock in every 10km radius is not reasonable or
proportional to maintaining law and order. In fact the numerous road
blocks are a direct violation of section 66 which says every Zimbabwean
and anyone living in Zimbabwe has a right to move freely in Zimbabwe.”
RUA is intensifying its fight against police to the extent that it has
asked people to submit affidavits sharing their experiences at roadblocks.
The public outcry comes as stone-broke government has increased traffic
spot fines by nearly 100 percent, in a controversial move it claims will
reduce road accidents.
COMMENTS
So now that we have a new Highway Code and new SADC road signs, shouldn’t we adopt other SADC countries system of roadblocks? I mean, does Botswana or Namibia or South Africa have roadblocks every 10 km?
to many road blocks its too much for us…..
controversial move it claims will reduce road accidents nooooooo everyone knows speed kills……..
This Country is going down the drain slowly but sure,its so funny that between Bulawayo and Gwanda you come across 15 Roadblocks? ??really guys .oh LORD help your Crying children in Zimbabwe LORD we are suffering in HANDS of so called POLICE ROADBLOCKS.ln SA you can drive almost from Polokwane to Gauteng without being stopped(almost 400 kilometres ) and since im a regular on this freeway i have never seen such ROBBERY that is being done next door.
its a concern that our country is in such a desperate state.our government must take care of its citizens not to harass and intimidate its people through the police.
Fuel corruption? They are corruption.
Repair roads and you avoid accidents ,What do police know about defects in cars ,recently i found them at Richmond at a stop sign and asked them to go to TM Hyper opposite the old Memoial hospital where Kombies are dangerously making u turns and make money there . you know what the gentleman laughed it off because it will be in front of the public .these Roadblocks are nothing but a money making scheme.