Zimbabwe police have launched a two-week operation to tame the traffic jungle in the country.
According to the police, the operation which started yesterday and ends on 26 September was necessary because:
- Lawlessness on the roads, especially in major cities has reached an alarming and unacceptable level. Some drivers cause chaos on the roads by driving against one way, oncoming traffic, through red robots and lane violation.
- Pirate taxis commonly known as Mushika-shika and Kombis have almost taken over the passenger service industry and are plying the roads with impunity. They recklessly drive through red robots controlled intersections.
- Public Service vehicle are loading and offloading passengers at undesignated points which has resulted in City/Town roads being impassable.
- Heavy vehicles are crisscrossing within towns and cities disregarding the use of the outlying designated routes thereby causing congestion
- Plateless motor vehicles are still plying the country’s roads with impunity. It is difficult for law enforcement agencies to identify owners of unregistered vehicles after committing such crimes as they are not on the Central Vehicle Registration [CVR] and CID [VTS] databases.
- Some government vehicles and porsche cars have joined the band wagon of not fitting registration plates and reckless driving practices.
- A lot of Public Service Vehicles are unroadworthy and do not have legal documents such as passenger insurance, route authority and certificate of fitness.
- Breakdown vehicles are putting tree branches and stones as warning signs instead of reflective triangles.
- Motorists are dangerously parking along the city roads avoiding parking bays so as not to pay for regulated parking fees which results in them causing congestion in the city centre.
- Farming equipment like tractors and combined harvesters are being driven on high ways disregarding relevant regulating statutes.
- Illegal fittings on motor vehicles like bar lights which cannot be dipped in violation of the S.I 129 of the Road Traffic Act Chapter 13:11.
- Pedestrians are using undesignated crossing points in urban setup resulting in congestion in some points and fatal accidents in extreme cases.
- As a result of the chaos on the roads, innocent motorists are having a nightmare while driving in the urban setups.
- The public at large has a general perception that ZRP has abandoned its mandate to enforce traffic regulations.
The operation shall be carried out by the police, the Zimbabwe National Road Administration, Central Vehicle Registry, Vehicle Examination Department, Insurance Company of Zimbabwe, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe and local authority teams.
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