TRAFFIC CORRUPTION CONTINUES

Dear Editor

I PARTED with K300 to a woman traffic police officer last Saturday.

I followed a truck through a green light. Only to be confronted by an officer waiting on the other side for this eventually. She accordingly stopped me alleging that I had jumped the red light.

I protested that I entered the junction on green but was obviously obstructed by the truck to see whether the light had gone amber. She could not hear any of it.

I was given the option of either paying an instant fine or face the daunting prospect of traffic court on Monday.

There was really no choice. I paid the fine of K300, she wanted more but that was the only money I had.

As I drove off, I wondered how many other people had parted with money in the same manner and how much she would have made at the end of the day.

Little wonder most traffic officers drive posh cars and indeed we hear that the traffic section is the most wanted because of the fringe benefits. Most traffic officer apparently also own minibuses which re spared the routine that civilian owners face.

The bigger story is that the traffic section in Lusaka has been deliberately enlarged because the proceeds from extortion are shared with the top brass.

The experience has however left me thinking.

The entire Government is aware that traffic policemen and their womenfolk extort money from motorists, is there no way this can be stopped.

A brilliant idea to have uniforms without pockets may not work because police women will simply push man in their bra, where they traditionally keep it anyway and their menfolk will secrete it in their trousers.

Short of making our officers wear tight plastic underwater diving suits there is very little chance of stopping this malaise which is quite a nuisance and a strong rebuke against the lack of leadership in the Police service.

If in the interest of stopping cholera spreading, the Government could employ all assets including the security wings, it should be possible to eradicating this malaise. Let other wings drive in unmarked vehicles and eradicate this menace.

This extortion is done in broad daylight, preying on the ignorance and often fear of the unknown. Motorists are not fully conversant with offences that are impoundable and which will go to the traffic court and so on. These officers therefore prey on this ignorance.

Surely technology can be employed for speed traps, jumping red lights and even checking for licences, to eliminate the need for corrupt human beings. Zambia can learn from developed countries that have employed the use of computer technology that will for example immediately detect that a car licence has expired and thereafter generate an automatic call out to the owner. After all RTSA has a computerised record of all cars in the country which record will document and keep a record of expiry. Why wait for a traffic officer to make money on such an exercise that can be done from the computer data base or are we too lazy. Why not put cameras on the Manda hill junction to take pictures of offending vehicles and send bills to the owners of the offending cars whose details will be on the RASA data base instead of allowing the conmen and women masquerading as police officers milk motorists.

Leadership in our forces should not be about keeping hordes of officers, it should be about being innovative.

Manfred Kawesha.