Man stages one man demo

A Karoi man, Mr Never Gasho recently staged a one man peaceful demonstration to express his anger over council's traffic offence penalties, which he deems to be very exorbitant.

Mr Gasho, a well known civic leader in Karoi who chairs one of the residents' associations in the town vented his anger on Karoi Town Council chairman Councillor Richard Ziki and beleaguered politician Sarah Mahoka, accusing the two of colluding to institute punitive traffic offence tariffs.

As a result, Mr Gasho staged a one man demonstration in front of Karoi Hotel denouncing the two.

Asked how Mahoka came into the equation of council politics, Gasho said the politician wielded a lot of power and had a hand in whatever decisions were taken by council.

The claim could not however be verified.

Mr Gasho says the traffic offence fines of up to US$50 being charged by council for wrong parking or for failure to pay a dollar parking fee are too high.

Councillor Ziki however dismissed Mr Gasho's allegations as baseless, saying the tariffs are budgeted for and that wide consultations were carried out with stakeholders before being introduced.

Karoi Town Council has engaged a partner to restore traffic normalcy in the town.

Traffic offenders who fail to comply with regulations often have their vehicles towed to a council holding bay where storage charges are also added on top of the prescribed fine.

The system applies to a number of urban local authorities.