In a recent report entitled Corruption by traffic police officers and vehicle drivers in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe ACT gave details of how Zimbabwe could be losing substantial amounts of revenue to its traffic police officers.
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| Zimbabwean Police Officers |
The
report was sent to Melusi Matshiya, Permanent Secretary in the Zimbabwe
Ministry of Home Affairs in November 2011, but so far he has not even
acknowledged receipt.
South
African-based lawyer, Gabriel Shumba, said this week the Zimbabwean governments
silence on the report could be interpreted as tacit admission of guilt in
complicity with the police force, and was an indictment of its corrupt
tendencies. ACT-Southern Africa, set up in 2004 to campaign against corruption
in the region, released the report after a researcher travelled by road in
public transport from Windhoek to Harare via Botswana, through the Mamuno
border post.
We
have not yet heard anything from the Zimbabwean government, despite the
numerous emails that we have written to them about the report, said Shumba. We
have tried to call them on many occasions, but it seems that they do not want
anything to do with the report and our conclusion now is that they acknowledge
the corruption is there in the ZRP, they know about it and are rubber-stamping
it.
In
an email sent on November 10 and seen by The
Zimbabwean ACT asked Matshiya to take action on the reported graft.
The
report also reveals that transport business operators in Zimbabwe and Namibia
are losing substantial income due to bribes paid by their drivers to corrupt
traffic police officers. The researcher noted that transactions between corrupt
traffic police officers and drivers took place openly and without any shame.
The nature of the conversations between them showed that they knew each other
and had been paying and receiving bribes for a long time.
There
were also many incidents in which police officers demanded bribes without any
sign of fear or compunction. Some did beat around the bush, first asking
drivers to choose between paying a prescribed traffic fine or paying a lesser
amount for a police officers drink.
The
researcher said that in Zimbabwe, the bus was stopped by police and made to pay
bribes of between US$10 and US$20 at each of several roadblocks only a few
kilometres apart. The report warned that the culture of corruption was
deep-seated with the rank and file of the force. It urged the governments of to
monitor traffic police on a constant but irregular level, to ensure that those
involved in corrupt activities were caught and exposed.
Whenever
possible, governments are encouraged to lay traps and all those caught should
be prosecuted and dismissed from the force. Anti-Corruption bodies should be
established and empowered to deal with these kinds of offences. Laws, policy
and practice should be established that encourage whistleblowers to report
corruption, especially those who feel tempted to pay bribes, read the report.
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