HOME Affairs minister Obert Mpofu has said an average of 50 touts are being arrested every day in Harare for breaking road rules. The police have launched “Operation Sunshine City” targeted at errant drivers and touts. Mpofu told Parliament on Wednesday the touts were fined $20 each but immediately returned to the streets to continue with their monkeyshines.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
He was responding to a question by Zanu PF legislator Sabbina Thembani who wanted to know if the minister had put in place measures to address the issue of commuter omnibus drivers who drive recklessly leading to loss of lives on the roads, and conductors and touts who recklessly rode behind omnibuses hanging on the vehicles’ roofs.
“On average, police are arresting 50 touts per day in Harare and in most cases they pay deposit fines of $20 per individual but they immediately go back to the street,” Mpofu said.
“Recently, some touts were arrested and sentenced to three months in prison, but we feel the law should be tightened so that deterrent sentences can be imposed on anyone found hanging onto moving vehicles.”
He said in dealing with the menace, the police worked in partnership with stakeholders such as Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe and local authorities.
“Regular operations are carried out to arrest errant drivers and touts and the owners of the vehicles are called to account for the actions of their drivers,” Mpofu said.
Mpofu said the issue of reckless driving was mainly an attitude problem among drivers. He said passengers and the motoring public should report reckless driving through the police national complaints desk or provincial hotline numbers; Harare Operations (04) 748836 or Bulawayo Operations (09) 885479, WhatsApp numbers, and the ministry or ZRP websites.
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He said shortage of vehicles also disadvantaged the police in dealing with errant drivers and touts as most of them would be on foot while dealing with criminals driving vehicles.
Chegutu West MP Dexter Nduna (Zanu PF) said it was better for the ZRP to use modern technology to deal with errant drivers and touts as it would be difficult for them to monitor more than 1,5 million motorists on the country’s roads at any given time.
Mpofu said the police services were being modernised to trace errant drivers and un-roadworthy vehicles.
