Army drivers can't be trusted, says VID

Military drivers may be a major factor in the country's increasing road carnage, a senior state traffic inspection official told Parliament Monday.

Appearing before the portfolio committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development on the causes of road accidents, Joseph Pedzapasi, the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) chief inspector, said he was "unsure" whether drivers from the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) were competent enough, since they were not licensed by his department.

Pedzapasi said while the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) had a fully-fledged driving school with well-known training methods, the army had its own way of doing things.

"ZRP has a very competent driving school where they train their drivers and certify them. They then forward them to us for the issuance of the license discs," said Pedzapasi. "I am, however, not sure of the competence of the military drivers because we are not involved in the way they do their things. Soldiers are allowed to drive on that license for as long as they are still serving members."

The VID was found to be the most corrupt government- aligned institution in Zimbabwe by Transparency International in 2012, followed by the ZRP.

However, Pedzapasi pointed an accusing finger at the police for fuelling corruption through numerous roadblocks and turning a blind eye to the scourge when they jointly man roadblocks. He said government vehicles were not inspected even if it was apparent that they were not roadworthy.

"Our officials issue prohibitive tickets to certain vehicles, meaning such vehicles may not be used until they are repaired to conform to standards, but the police have always insisted on spot fines, putting the lives of the traveling public at risk," said Pedzapasi.

Pedzapasi admitted that even police and military vehicles were not inspected despite being defective.

"The observation that government vehicles are not inspected is true. Even their (police) own vehicles are in a very bad state, but they are not inspected," he said.

Pedzapasi cited an example of Chiredzi's VID depot where he said his department had fired 18 inspectors for corruptly issuing out licenses in 2010, "but the police had been aware and did not act".

"We had to use our own internal mechanisms to detect that something fishy was obtaining at our Chiredzi depot despite that there are suggestion boxes at each and every one of our 23 stations nationwide. Our colleagues (police) are letting us down because they let corruption go unabated even when it happens right under their noses," he said.

"If you visit all our 23 centres nationwide you will observe there are notices against corruption, but what is surprising is that even members of the public do not report it."

Pedzapasi said like all other government departments, VID was facing financial constraints, as well as capacity problems relating to staff shortages. He said each inspector was dealing with 5 000 vehicles per year, against the international best practice of 169, translating to 22 vehicles per day against the international best practice of 12.

Dilapidated road infrastructure, as well as defective public transport had contributed to the growing bloodletting on the country's roads, with holiday periods particularly turning into death trips for ordinary Zimbabweans groaning under the weight of a liquidity crunch and a decade long economic crisis.

The committee was chaired by Zanu-PF legislator for Epworth, Amos Midzi.