Police launch crackdown on motorists in fund raising blitz

via Police launch crackdown on motorists in fund raising blitz | SW Radio Africa by Tichaona Sibanda on Thursday, June 5, 2014

Police have launched a massive crackdown on all major roads checking on uninsured vehicles. Motorists who have not paid tariffs are having their vehicles impounded.

This has sparked an outcry from motorists who accuse the authorities of raising funds for the broke government.

Officials from the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA), the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) are helping police with the spot checks.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said police are pulling over uninsured vehicles, while ZINARA are checking if motorists have paid their road permit disks.

‘The ZBC is checking if radios in the vehicles have licence fees while ZIMRA is stopping buses mainly from across the border, to check on receipts for duty on all imported goods,’ Muchemwa said.

Muchemwa said while police insists it’s time the law breakers were caught and dealt with, motorists are accusing the state institutions of trying to raise money for a broke government.

It is estimated that there are close to two million vehicles on the road in the country and that less than half are driven without insurance, a permit disk or a ZBC licence.

However it is the timing of the crackdown, at a time when the government is struggling to pay its civil servants, that has raised eyebrows across the country.

‘Those coming from the Zimbabwean borders, especially Beitbridge, are complaining their goods are being confiscated by ZIMRA. The motorists say the blitz is a fund raising exercise to help raise money to pay salaries for government workers,’ Muchemwa added.