Govt defends traffic spot fines

HOME Affairs permanent secretary Melusi Matshiya has defended police decision to retain all the money collected as traffic spot fines, saying the money was used to meet the force's pressing operational needs such as buying uniforms.

Matshiya told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday that at one time police officers were avoiding attending to crime scenes because of their tattered uniforms. He also disclosed that police came second to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority in terms of revenue collection.

His remarks came after committee chairperson and Chipinge South MP Enock Porusingazi (Zanu-PF) demanded to know why the police were allowed to retain spot fines when other government departments were only allowed to retain a small percentage of their collected revenue.

Said Matshiya: "I can assure the committee that all retention fines are applied for intended purposes - because with the ZRP [Zimbabwe Republic Police] their situation was so dire that their uniforms had patches and had changed colour and some of them were even shy to attend to crime scenes for fear of their tattered uniforms."

"Now, the situation has improved with the retention of spot fines and I can be proud to display them and say they are my police force. I also had a situation where I could not send speed traps for calibration. Previously, it used to take more than six months for police to check if someone had criminal records and if I had better funds, I would ensure there is revolution in terms of operations of the police," he said.

Matshiya pleaded with Treasury to continue allowing police to retain spot fines, but refused to disclose how much the ZRP collected monthly. This comes as another parliamentary portfolio committee has recommended the scrapping of spot fines.