New menace on the highways

Dumisani Ndlela, Staff Reporter

THERE was one thing to look out for when travelling through Zimbabwe’s dreaded highways: The big potholes! It bothered everyone, and on the busy Harare-Masvingo-Beitbridge road, it was always a nightmarish experience and nobody dared travel without uttering a prayer.
There are patches and too few of those deep holes now, but for public transport operators and their passengers, and even for the private car drivers, there is something new to look out for, especially towards school opening days and, well, even when there is an urgent need for cash back home.
Well, it’s not an automated teller machine, in case one dared hazard a wild guess, but for those who have been on the road mainly as drivers, there is certainly no price for guessing who causes a shiver without showing a danger warning sign.
Police Ahead is normally a sign that should invoke happiness among commuters and drivers on the country’s roads, but that sign no longer inspires a sense of safety but dejection among road users across the country.
Last Saturday, travelling to Beitbridge by public transport from Harare was terrible: 18 police stops, one of which had the dreaded Vehicle Inspectorate Dep-artment (VID) officers.
A journey that should have taken at least six hours ended up taking 10 hours: 10 of the police road blocks – one was in fact a highway patrol team – were between Harare and Chivhu; six were between Chivhu and Masvingo and two were between Masvingo and Ngundu, way before reaching Beitbridge.
The count could have been more if the commuter vehicle I was travelling in had crossed Ngundu during day time: a driver who had wanted to get to Beitbridge at 4:30 pm for another trip to Bulawayo was only too happy to finish the remainder of the journey under darkness.
“It’s terrible. We are working for these people,” said the driver, dejectedly. “I’ve paid, I’ve paid...” he stutters, then, after what appears to be second thoughts, withhold his words.
But even at US$4 per road block, it’s a staggering US$40 between Harare and Chivhu, but at two of the road blocks, when he sounded stubborn to officers, he was slapped with two US$10 tickets. These were waved like visa’s at subsquent roadblocks, but each time the man with the badge would look for an offence different from any of those written on the two tickets.
“You haven’t started yet,” charged a female police officer when the driver flashed his two fine tickets at a roadblock just before Masvingo town. And indeed, he hadn’t. After penny-pinching efforts, he had to pay up as passengers grew increasingly frustrated.
But a passenger was to later plead with an officer at a roadblock in Masvingo close to the golf course: “Please spare this man. We’ve had 16 roadblocks already.”
“Oh, I didn’t know police officers are working that hard,” retorted the officer, mockingly.
So, along the way, each time an oncoming public transport vehicle flashed the headlights, he cringed — another roadblock ahead, and how much should I pay?
“Schools are opening and they are only trying to raise fees for their children,” said a frail old man as he climbed down the car at Ngundu. “But I guess you can now travel well. It’s now dark, isn’t it?”
The driver just stared blankly at the old man. He did not answer. The maths wasn’t adding up.
The car staggered forward, and there was a scream.
“Hey, don’t let this stress you because you’ll kill us,” shouted a passenger from the back seat.
Well, the driver might already be dead, so what’s the point. There’s still need for a prayer!

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written by Ndlovu Thamu, September 16, 2010

May be you guys should look at the issue of asking for your driver's licence and using it as a bargaining tool. I think legally , a police officer should ask for a licence, check it and give it back, then start looking for other defects. they should not look for defects while holding the licence