Police a threat to public safety on our roads

It is expected in every democracy that the police service is the upholder of law and protector of the public. In Zimbabwe, it seems that expectation is now a utopian idea. Zimbabwean police officers litter our roads in alarming numbers of roadblocks in ways that are difficult to understand.

Whilst roadblocks should be instruments for public safety through the checking of overloaded or unroadworthy vehicles, in Zimbabwe they are now encouragement to the same. The road blocks are now the number one public danger on our roads.

Travelling from Plumtree to Bulawayo, a 100 km stretch of road, one encounters on an average day four roadblocks. At these roadblocks, instead of police officers inspecting the roadworthyness of vehicles or the load and licence of the driver, they direct the vehicle, especially taxis (kombis), they simply instruct them "pakai pa side" (to park by the side of the road). The taxi driver then goes to pay the infamous "road access free", a bribe in other words. This has now caused taxi drivers to endanger the lives of communitors by overloading their vehicles so as to raise the bribes demanded by police officers at roadblocks, otherwise normal loading will mean they arrive at their destination without any money. Unroadworthy vehicles are given safe passage as long as the driver can pay the 'road access fee'.

Marked and unmarked roadblocks manned by police officers ranging from two to a dozen have also become a pain and cause for costly delays for commuters as the taxi drivers would not be allowed to pass through a roadblock unless they have paid the bribes demanded by police officers. It may be difficult to quantify the cost to the economy as a whole, but there is no doubting that millions of dollars are lost everyday in potential business as people are stuck at police roadblocks, wasting time that they otherwise would have used productively.

Asked why they cooperate so much with the police demands to pay the bribes, taxi drivers only quip that if they do not coorperate, "akusoze kusebenzeke emgwaqweni" (it won't be easy to do one's business on the road). Whenever a commuter complains about the overloading of a taxi, they are met with a stern rebuke like "awusingahake jita banhu banjinji banoyenda, takafanila bhadala mapholisa muzila" (if you don't want to travel in this taxi just remain behind, there are many other commuters and we need money to pay the police on the road).

This writer has once been threatened with arrest for questioning the delays at one roadblock. The police refuse to listen to commuters' pleas against delays saying they are simply doing their job, "it's the law".

Inside the taxis one can only hears sighs and complaints from commuters over the delays and the fact that government has lost control over the police services. Expressing a sense of helplessness, commuters encourage the driver to "just pay them ngobe takajaha" (we are in a hurry). The taxi drivers then uses this as an excuse for overloading their vehicles, in the process endangering the very lives of the commuters they are carrying in their vehicles.

Some commuters express the belief that police officers have probably been given the greenlight by the government to "raise money for themselves" on the roads, asking why is the government is failing to reign in the situation. Some even go so far as to state that this is now the way life should be in Zimbabwe, expressing the old saying, "mbgwa inodla payaka sungiligwa/inja idla lapho iboshelwe khona" (literally meaning "the dog eats where it is tied to"). The expression is used to mean that it is only at one's workstation that they can make money.