SCORES of private driving school instructors yesterday besieged the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) Eastlea depot in Harare, blocking learners from being examined as they protested against alleged rampant corruption involving examiners.
Source: Driving instructors protest against VID examiners corruption – NewsDay Zimbabwe August 23, 2016
BY OBEY MANAYITI
The instructors refused to let their vehicles inside the depot demanding the expulsion of the corrupt examiners.
“As Harare driving school instructors, we are here to show our displeasure at some of the VID examiners who are demanding bribe money from learners. Imagine one of my students failed for the ninth time all because she is refusing to give these people some money,” Harare Driving School Instructors’ Association chairperson Prosper Dowa said.
“They demand amounts ranging between $250-$300. That inhibits learner drivers from acquiring licences. We don’t know why this depot is so corrupt. We are aware that things are not well in the country and we reduced our charges from $5 to $3 a lesson. That is what we are charging, but these people are making outrageous demands just to make people pass. Such level of corruption is so worrisome and this is why we have many motorists who are driving without licences.”
Top VID officials at the depot declined to comment on the issue.
Transport minister Joram Gumbo vowed to weed out corrupt elements at VID if the public supplied him with irrefutable evidence.
“I have spoken about that a number of times and I also get numerous calls from people complaining. I have told them to come forward so that we assist each other,” he said.
“I hear a lot of things, but the people do not come forward. The public is letting us down because they are not assisting us to arrest the situation and without the information it will be difficult for us to deal with the issue.”
He also urged aggrieved parties to call using the toll-free lines or drop leads into police suggestion boxes to assist in the investigations.
COMMENTS
WHAT THE EFFING HELL ARE THE POLICE DOING……..ever heard of a sting operation…..Mr dumbass minister……GOI GO NOW …….
Big up for driving instructors we need more proactive Zimbos of same calibre. Such lack of moral high ground and selflessness is surely lacking in most of Zimboz. Imagine these are people who have their licenses and instructors for that matter who are outing their life on the line for the sake of those who are being skinned-alive by the heartless corrupt officials.
Big question is: when are we also take these kind of protests to ZESA offices & depots across the country? We are being skinned alive by this institution in general and worse so by its shop floor workers. They are busy demanding huge bribes from us for them to do what they are employed to do by ZESA; and to give you what you would have paid to ZESA. No bribe no electricity connection or attendance to reported and some times life threatening electrical faults. They tell the ordinary people the amounts of money they want if they are to come & attend to problems & when they come you pay first before they do the job else they will simply not attend to whatever you would have called them for.
Plse its take ZESA head on. we are sick and tired of the their greedy & corrupt shenanigans.
Taken a long time to cry foul, hasn’t it? Is this a new phenomenon they have just become aware of?
At least it is shorter than 1000 years…….LOL
Of course how many people who CANNOT drive are able to afford these prices! Scary thought that dangerous learner drivers are given a licence, and then drive our roads!
Come on Minister you can do better than that. You know your officials are corrupt. It would be easy to have your staff call each and every tested person and ask if there was corruption. Or a selection of tested persons.
Why not also meet the driving instructors. …They know exactly who is taking bribes.
Also a separate affidavit after receiving license saying they were or were not asked to pay a bribe.
The instructors must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if they think that the most corrupt will arrest any other corrupt government employees. The minister probably takes a cut on all the drivers licence pay offs.