Police Officers Warned Against Taking Bribes

Police officers have been warned against taking bribes from motorists at roadblocks as this results in road traffic accidents as unroadworthy vehicles are allowed on the roads.

Assistant commissioner Levi Sibanda warned that those found wanting will face the full wrath of the law. He said:

When we introspect we look at the statistics where our citizens lost their lives through accidents. It is indeed disturbing.

I am encouraging enforcement agencies not to accept bribes from motorists. And also to encourage our transporters not to bribe or not be part and parcel of this very bad and unnecessary arrangement within our society.

We expect your fleets to be roadworthy. You must not buy your presence on our roads through bribes.

Buy Samsung, itel, Redmi smartphones in Zimbabwe

WhatsApp: +263715068543

He was speaking at the World Day or Road Traffic Victims commemorations held in Bulawayo this week.

23 people were reportedly arrested in July this year within a period of four hours for bribery at a roadblock along the Harare-Bulawayo highway.

According to official data, more than 1 500 people lost their lives through road accidents between January and September this year while 7 851 were injured countrywide.

Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister, Felix Mhona, called for cooperation among stakeholders to curb road traffic accidents. He said:

We, therefore, call for partnerships and collaborations with religious communities, organised labour, business, government institutions and civil society to mitigate the occurrences and ugly impacts of his scourge.

The carnage on our roads must stop. We can’t go on pretending day by day that someone, someday will come and make a change.

Road safety is our absolute responsibility. Surely, it can only be through us that we put an end to this.

This is a war we can win as roughly 94% of road traffic accidents are directly attributed to human error.

A change in human behaviour could therefore easily result in a lowering of the worrisome statistic.

All of us want to end this carnage. All of us must end this carnage. It is now or never.

| Business Times