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Tendai Biti detained for using new Parliament car with no number plates
24 Jan 2021 at 06:40hrs | Views
Biti at Mliswa's farm
Opposition MDC Alliance vice president Tendai Biti was briefly detained by police in Karoi on Saturday over a new Parliament car that had no number plates.
Biti had visited Temba Mliswa's farm where he had a transaction involving cattle.
Mliswa revealed this on Twitter saying he was annoyed how he was arrested and taken to the police station.
Biti appears to have touched a raw nerve after panning the establishment for fumbling its coronavirus response following multiple deaths of current and former government officials this week.
Police have demanded that all vehicles on the roads should have number plates since they are now readily available, and police teams have been heavily deployed on the roads targeting unregistered vehicles.
The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has joined the drive to eliminate vehicles without registration numbers through denying such vehicles passage at tollgates.
The crackdown on unregistered vehicles comes in the wake of a spate of armed robberies countrywide, with some criminals using unmarked vehicles to evade police.
Police commanders in all provinces were recently directed to ensure that only vehicles with number plates were allowed to pass through roadblocks and security check points.
At Southerton Police Station police were manning roadblocks and impounding such vehicles.
Most of the impounded vehicles were unregistered small cars such as the Honda Fit and police said they will only release the cars once the owners produce receipts from the Central Vehicle Registry proving that they have paid for number plates and were waiting to collect them.
Because of the acute shortage of number plates, Government in February last year allowed importers of vehicles who had been unable to register to obtain temporary identification cards for indefinite use.
However, with temporary number plates normally having a 14-day lifespan, there had been a huge increase in unregistered vehicles as the shortage persisted owing to foreign currency constraints.
Although the number plates are now readily available, their cost remains on the high side. Police have launched a blitz under which unregistered vehicles are being impounded and barred from passing through tollgates, as a way of enforcing compliance with regulations.
According to the Vehicle Registration and Licensing Act, vehicles should be registered and always display their registration marks and numbers.
Biti had visited Temba Mliswa's farm where he had a transaction involving cattle.
Mliswa revealed this on Twitter saying he was annoyed how he was arrested and taken to the police station.
He came to the farm where we had a transaction involving cattle& we did business well. I was however annoyed how he was arrested& taken to the @PoliceZimbabwe station over a new Parliament car that had no plates. The plates are not even available so why all the drama about?
— Hon. Temba P. Mliswa (@TembaMliswa) January 24, 2021
Biti appears to have touched a raw nerve after panning the establishment for fumbling its coronavirus response following multiple deaths of current and former government officials this week.
Police have demanded that all vehicles on the roads should have number plates since they are now readily available, and police teams have been heavily deployed on the roads targeting unregistered vehicles.
The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has joined the drive to eliminate vehicles without registration numbers through denying such vehicles passage at tollgates.
The crackdown on unregistered vehicles comes in the wake of a spate of armed robberies countrywide, with some criminals using unmarked vehicles to evade police.
Police commanders in all provinces were recently directed to ensure that only vehicles with number plates were allowed to pass through roadblocks and security check points.
At Southerton Police Station police were manning roadblocks and impounding such vehicles.
Most of the impounded vehicles were unregistered small cars such as the Honda Fit and police said they will only release the cars once the owners produce receipts from the Central Vehicle Registry proving that they have paid for number plates and were waiting to collect them.
Because of the acute shortage of number plates, Government in February last year allowed importers of vehicles who had been unable to register to obtain temporary identification cards for indefinite use.
However, with temporary number plates normally having a 14-day lifespan, there had been a huge increase in unregistered vehicles as the shortage persisted owing to foreign currency constraints.
Although the number plates are now readily available, their cost remains on the high side. Police have launched a blitz under which unregistered vehicles are being impounded and barred from passing through tollgates, as a way of enforcing compliance with regulations.
According to the Vehicle Registration and Licensing Act, vehicles should be registered and always display their registration marks and numbers.
Source - byo24news
