Police can smash windscreens to enforce arrest - minister says

Members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police can smash windscreens of commuter omnibuses as that is within their right to enforce an arrest if drivers are not cooperative, a cabinet minister has said.

 Co-Home Affair Minister Theresa Makone told parliament recently that police are forced to resort to using baton sticks as their lives would be in danger.

She said "In normal policing situations where the police are stationary at a road side, the most appropriate equipment to use in order to immobilise any errant motorist are spikes that are used to deflate vehicle tyres.

"Officers are forced to use the long baton sticks to impair the vision of the driver, thereby forcing him or her to stop in circumstances where drivers willfully, intentionally and negligently disobey lawful police orders clearly violating the provision of the Road Traffic Act," said Makone.

She said police offices officers have in the past been "killed or injured due to the abundance of reckless driving by the drivers". Traffic cops are kombi drivers are engaged in a cat and mouse fight countrywide.

 Kombi drivers are accused of picking and dropping off passengers at undesignated points while traffic police are accused of soliciting for bribes daily.