There’s a police roadblock on Enterprise Road just near Greenpark. Last Sunday when I was running up Enterprise Road, I saw the police stop a commuter (one of many pulled over). The driver got out and ran over to one of the officers. In his hand was some money, at the ready. In other words, a bribe. Perhaps Minister Makone should take a commuter trip or two and see first hand what’s going on.

Here’s a report from the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association:

Commuters in Bulawayo have again expressed displeasure with the conduct of police officers. This comes as commuters continue to bear the brunt in the continued war between the traffic police and commuter omnibus operators. Residents have complained that of late, police officers all seem to be more concerned about traffic offences, ignoring other crimes. It has been alleged that police officers solicit for bribes from commuter omnibus operators in full view of commuters. Due to this, commuter omnibus operators are operating vehicles that are not roadworthy confident that they will get away with it due to the culture of bribing. This is putting the lives of commuters at risk. Further to this, traffic operators are taking longer routes to avoid roadblocks, inconveniencing commuters in the process.

In the same vein, commuter omnibus operators have raised concerns that the spot fines they are made to pay are too expensive considering the profits they make. The traffic police officers that mount road blocks and those that patrol the city haunt commuter operators charging them exorbitant spot fines of up to $80 when they make between $80 and $100 a day. This scenario is forcing kombi drivers to over speed in a bid to escape, putting the lives of residents at risk.

This entry was posted on February 8th, 2011 at 10:05 am by Bev Clark and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.