Roadblocks fine collections alarming

Source: Roadblocks fine collections alarming – DailyNews Live

6 July 2017

HARARE – While parliamentarians have over the months raised the issue of
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) setting cash targets on roadblocks,
officials from Home Affairs ministry have vehemently refuted this, saying
the only targets are those of the number of vehicles they should inspect
per day.

However, documents leaked this week clearly indicate the opposite as ZRP
actually issue traffic officers and police stations throughout the country
monetary targets.

The latest expose shows that the ZRP is, instead of policing the roads,
actually out there on a fund-raising exercise milking cash form motorists.

In a struggling economy like Zimbabwe’s, raising $14 million in just six
months by issuing tickets to motorists is alarming.

And in the same period, the ZRP arrested over one million motorists, a
record by all standards and in essence we are talking about the traffic
police making over 5 000 arrests a day.

Interestingly, in the leaked documents, the police – mostly those in
Harare – who failed to meet the targets have blamed the many roadblocks,
which they say make it difficult for them to meet the target as too many
officers are sharing arrests!

Apart from Harare having many roadblocks, others failing to meet the
target have blamed “evading motorists” for the short falls. This means the
police were actually targeting more than the one million arrests.

But what boggles the mind is how the ZRP calculates its targets. So from
the reading of all this, the ZRP has to issue tickets everyday and
vehicles like kombis may be issued with tickets everyday.

The several voices that have raised alarm at police, arguing they are
implementing a government fund-raising project, seem to make sense. One
wonders how such a staggering figure could be raised just from spot fines.

And suspicions become stronger, in the face of this expose, that the
exercise has made some officers in the traffic section rich from
motorists’ bribes and kickbacks.

In recent months, there have been reports of police officers, some of them
very senior, who have been dragged to court facing charges of receiving
bribes from motorists.

While roadblocks are a part of ZRP’s policing duties, what is shocking and
alarming is the setting of targets for them.

During the six-month period, traffic police also collected R11 717 900
which shows that apart from Zimbabwean motorists, those travelling to and
from South Africa are also being affected.