Govt must reduce spot fines

EDITOR — Traffic fee hikes effected by the police are inconsiderate in the current economic environment in the country.

The Zimbabwe Republic Police have not provided any justification for the upward review which I feel is unfair on motorists.

When I saw The Herald banner that there were new traffic fines, my assumption was that they had reduced them because that was the logical thing to do in these circumstances. Recently South African travel magazine, Leisure Wheels did a story on the tourism potential in the country.

From their review, every other aspect was encouraging except the conduct of our traffic police officers.

The review noted that nothing could quite prepare them for the gauntlet they ran in Zimbabwe.

Everything went well, as they stuck to non-tourist routes. They indicated that their fortunes took a turn for the worse when they hit the main road to Beitbridge and the “Big Rip-Off” began.

First, they were caught doing 64km/hr in a 60 km/ hr zone and handed a $5 penalty.

Next they were fined $20 for driving with the vehicle’s lights on, but were charged a $5 donation.

Then doing 81km/hr in a 100km zone, which the police claimed to be a 60km/hr zone.

That was $20. At one stage, there was one roadblock every 10 kilometres.

At a time Zimbabwe is trying to promote the “Ease of Doing Business”, it’s surprising that the Finance Act is the basis of this traffic fine hike.

It’s a contradiction considering that the Ministry of Finance has been trying to remove the number of obstacles involved in doing business and transacting.

Zimbabwe right now is gunning for a UNWTO seat, but some of these decisions seem to be making the tourism environment even harder.

Even for Zimbabwean motorists, the road is about to get tougher, literally. With the police armed with spikes, this means that their disposable incomes may have been presented with a new challenge.

ZRP traffic details rarely miss a target, they are prolific in coming up with offences. Some of them are absurd, but who cares? This upward review needs to be reconsidered.

Concerned, Harare.