News / National
Mugabe milks motorists, imposes new fines
29 Mar 2017 at 23:32hrs | Views
President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a provision that will further milk thousands of motorists in new traffic fines.
The coming into effect of new scale of fines followed the signing into law by Mugabe of the Finance Act last week.
Section 35 of the Finance Act reviewed Levels One, Two and Three of the standard scale of fines in the Criminal Law Code with effect from January 1 2017.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced that there would be a review of fines to be imposed by the police when he made his 2017 national budget in Parliament last year.
Level One was previously pegged at $5, but now stands at $10, while Level Two has been raised from $10 to $15, with Level Three raised from $20 to $30 per offence.
The fines that were pegged in Level One are minor offences where police would look at the gravity of the offence.
These include passenger failure to fasten a seat belt, cyclist failure to use cycle tracks and auto cycles using cycle tracks with engine on, among others.
Level Two includes offences such as failing to display registration number plates, failing to license registered motor vehicle, failing to obey right/left turn arrows, double parking, leaving animal drawn vehicle unattended and failing to produce registration book to VID within seven days after demand, among others.
Driving a vehicle without headlights or side lights, failure to maintain direction indicators in clean and efficient condition, failing to report an accident within 24 hours, failing to stop after a minor accident, driving wrong way in a one way road, driving wrong way in a separate carriage way and overtaking in front of oncoming traffic are some of the offences that are in Level Three.
Others are overtaking across a prohibition line, failing to obey regulatory signs such as the stop sign, failing to register motor vehicle, tampering with third number plate, defaced number plate and failing to stop at flash light at a rail road crossing.
The coming into effect of new scale of fines followed the signing into law by Mugabe of the Finance Act last week.
Section 35 of the Finance Act reviewed Levels One, Two and Three of the standard scale of fines in the Criminal Law Code with effect from January 1 2017.
Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa announced that there would be a review of fines to be imposed by the police when he made his 2017 national budget in Parliament last year.
Level One was previously pegged at $5, but now stands at $10, while Level Two has been raised from $10 to $15, with Level Three raised from $20 to $30 per offence.
These include passenger failure to fasten a seat belt, cyclist failure to use cycle tracks and auto cycles using cycle tracks with engine on, among others.
Level Two includes offences such as failing to display registration number plates, failing to license registered motor vehicle, failing to obey right/left turn arrows, double parking, leaving animal drawn vehicle unattended and failing to produce registration book to VID within seven days after demand, among others.
Driving a vehicle without headlights or side lights, failure to maintain direction indicators in clean and efficient condition, failing to report an accident within 24 hours, failing to stop after a minor accident, driving wrong way in a one way road, driving wrong way in a separate carriage way and overtaking in front of oncoming traffic are some of the offences that are in Level Three.
Others are overtaking across a prohibition line, failing to obey regulatory signs such as the stop sign, failing to register motor vehicle, tampering with third number plate, defaced number plate and failing to stop at flash light at a rail road crossing.
Source - Herald
