via Illegal spot fines: Who will police the police? – NewsDay Zimbabwe February 11, 2015
Motorists must have received with relief High Court judge Justice Francis Bere’s authoritative law-based remarks that police had no legal right to demand spot fines and impound cars at roadblocks or detain motorists for various perceived offences.
Castigating the police for deviating from their core business of enforcing the Highway Code, Justice Bere said there was no law which compelled any motorist to deposit a fine with the police if the motorist desired to challenge the alleged offence.
He said any collection made by the police must be made in terms of Section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:7) which does not give the police the power to force motorists to pay a fine on the spot if they did not wish to do so or if they do not have the money on their person.
Police in the past few years had become a menace on the roads. They had turned the country’s road network into a money spinning venture.
It was believed at the height of the economic crisis they had been authorised to use roadblocks as the force’s main revenue stream. Ever since they were given the permission to keep all their collections, unlike in the past when such collections were remitted to Treasury, the police had gone into overkill. They set up roadblocks literally everywhere much to the inconvenience of the travelling public.
In many cases motorists were asked to pay spot fines for the most innocuous reasons. Travellers began to refer to these roadblocks as tollgates, because they served no other purpose that to extort money from the public.
The practice didn’t affect only local motorists, tourists too were not spared. During the festive season it became common for tourists to protest through the media the amount of extortion and inconvenience they had to endure.
The practice bred corruption as policemen and policewomen demanded bribes. This was easy for them to do since they didn’t have to account to any court of law. Much of the money collected ended in individuals’ pockets. This was evidenced by the fact police details began to exhibit signs of riches. They began to own vehicles which the public knew they could never afford from their meagre salaries.
Commuter omnibuses were the worst hit since they had to pay some kind of extra-judicial tax to the ZRP.
Most omnibus operators were driven out of business and replaced by police officers who began to own fleets which were immune to these “taxes”.
Interestingly, the highway police’s core business of enforcing order on the roads suffered as motorists with defective vehicles got away with it by simply paying bribes. Ironically, the more the number of roadblocks, the more the number of accidents recorded on the roads. The road network became a jungle where only the most daring drivers thrived. Zimbabwe must have the highest rate of road accidents in the region.
Justice Bere’s valid sentiments should bring some sanity on the roads as the police will be beholden upon to apply the law by its letter and spirit and the enforcement of the law will begin to impact positively on motorists who would no longer survive on paying bribes.
The nation will, however, wait with bated breath to see whether Justice Bere’s judgment will be enforced when the police themselves are the culprits.
COMMENTS
At last a glimmer of light from the bench!
A glimmer of hope it is. Whether this will bear fruit is doubtful when you have the likes of Moyo backing the Police action and condemning the Judge. Sometimes when your title gets into your head you end up looking plain stupid. That is how Moyo, with all his education is starting to look. This is because he is trying to spin for every situation he ends up trying to tell the buffalo what type of grass to eat. Telling us about a 90 year old man breaking his fall. The Judge was not speaking in his private capacity. He was merely interpreting the Law. Spot fines are not a new concept and were there a long time ago. Spot collections on the other hand are a new and silly concept that has led to the Police delving into serious corruption and issuing fines where there was no offence was committed leaving the person getting the fine with no legal recourse.They have basically been given a green light to extort money for an already stretched public. If Professor Moyo and the powers that be want to legalize extortion then Law and order in Zimbabwe will will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained. The Police force at this moment is in need of a major overhaul. They have corrupt individuals that are beyond redemption and we all know it. Show me an ordinary Zimbabwe who has not been touch by these dirty individuals and dogs will grow horns. In the more advanced countries spot collection, if the individual admits to the offence they payment methods are such that they pay using debit cards. Even then if one does not have the cash there is still the option of paying say within 48hrs or online. If the legislators on all spheres of the political spectrum do not come together to stamp these practices out then we are doomed as a nation. If people like Moyo can rubbish a Judge commenting on something in his field the what is the use of the Judiciary anyway.