News / National
Taxi operators, police headed for clash
27 Sep 2017 at 11:01hrs | Views
TAXI owners are set to clash with traffic police, with the transport operators threatening to petition police over a alleged rampant corruption.
In a petition gleaned by the Southern News yesterday, and yet to be submitted to officer commanding police district (Dispol) Byo Traffic chief superintendent Fungai Dengu the taxi operators said it was time they took the bull by its horns, claiming the police were demanding bribes from them on a daily basis.
"We are forced to pay spot fines by the police on daily basis, a development which is pushing us out of business," reads part of the petition.
"It 's a well-known fact that there is no hard cash but the traffic cops insist on demanding cash of not less than $10 per day. Failure to pay that spot fine our vehicles are impounded and kept at Drill Hall where they will be attracting a charge of $20 storage per day.
"Sometimes if we fail to pay the spot fines we lose our licences which are taken by traffic officers," reads part of the petition adding that their woes were different from those of Kombi drivers who are only required to pay a minimum of $3 per day to operate freely.
In the petition, the drivers also accused the police of double standards.
"We have unregistered pirate taxis operating freely without number plates or any legal document in the city, they operate freely because most of them are owned by the police," they alleged.
The taxi drivers who spoke to Southern News singled out officers from Mpopoma 's Traffic West and Nkulumane Traffic as the major culprits.
The visibly-angry taxi drivers, however, refused to be named for fear of victimisation.
"At the moment, we cannot say out our names because we might be targeted by these officers. But we are working on forming our association, similar to the one by commuter omnibus operators, I think that 's when we will be able to choose faces who will represent us even in giving comments to the media," said one taxi driver.
However, Dengu was not available by the time of going to press.
In a petition gleaned by the Southern News yesterday, and yet to be submitted to officer commanding police district (Dispol) Byo Traffic chief superintendent Fungai Dengu the taxi operators said it was time they took the bull by its horns, claiming the police were demanding bribes from them on a daily basis.
"We are forced to pay spot fines by the police on daily basis, a development which is pushing us out of business," reads part of the petition.
"It 's a well-known fact that there is no hard cash but the traffic cops insist on demanding cash of not less than $10 per day. Failure to pay that spot fine our vehicles are impounded and kept at Drill Hall where they will be attracting a charge of $20 storage per day.
"Sometimes if we fail to pay the spot fines we lose our licences which are taken by traffic officers," reads part of the petition adding that their woes were different from those of Kombi drivers who are only required to pay a minimum of $3 per day to operate freely.
In the petition, the drivers also accused the police of double standards.
"We have unregistered pirate taxis operating freely without number plates or any legal document in the city, they operate freely because most of them are owned by the police," they alleged.
The taxi drivers who spoke to Southern News singled out officers from Mpopoma 's Traffic West and Nkulumane Traffic as the major culprits.
The visibly-angry taxi drivers, however, refused to be named for fear of victimisation.
"At the moment, we cannot say out our names because we might be targeted by these officers. But we are working on forming our association, similar to the one by commuter omnibus operators, I think that 's when we will be able to choose faces who will represent us even in giving comments to the media," said one taxi driver.
However, Dengu was not available by the time of going to press.
Source - dailynews
