Cops blasted over mushika

By Munyaradzi Doma

While the mushikashika scourge was expected to lessen following the inclusion of the ZRP into Harare city’s traffic enforcement, it is now worse.

These were the sentiments of Harare City councillors during a recent full council meeting where they also enquired when the new by-law will be implemented.

It was said that while cops were expected to rid the city of illegal pirate taxis and kombis, the situation has remained the same and in some cases worse.

“Your worship here we are talking of the issue of traffic chaos in our city. We roped in the services of the Zimbabwe Republic Police but nothing good has come out of it.

“The inclusion of the police has not helped in any way your worship because some of the members of the police are actually working with some of the guys who operate mushikashika.

“We now have an instance where some of the cops are now rank marshals your worship.

“It seems working from the mushikashika areas is now the in thing for some of them, unoona kumazuva rovira mapurisa achingoyenda kumushikashika akangobatawo maspikes but that is not helping in any way because the scourge is continuing.

“We should do something your worship,” said one councillor.

It was also added that the city’s traffic enforcement was more “fierce” than the cops hence the former should act more.

“Your worship when we used to have our guys (city traffic enforcement) using those D4Ds (Toyota Hilux) patrolling the city’s streets it was better not what we have now.

“I think our guys were feared more than these cops, we should do something,” added the councillor.

It was said that the issue will be discussed more including that of the by-law in the next committee.

The Environmental Management Committee had reported on the “disturbances in the flow of the traffic in the central business district.”

Members of the committee had “expressed concern over the chaos in the flow of traffic being caused by commuter omnibus and illegal pirate taxis and enquired what council was doing to address the problem.

“The acting Town Clerk advised that the Zimbabwe Republic Police had agreed to work with council’s traffic enforcement division to address the problem.

“However, a mass transport system was the most sustainable measure for driving illegal pirate taxis and commuter omnibuses out of the city’s roads,” added the minutes.

Because of the continuous challenges Harare faces with mushikashika, a Trafficable Roads Holding Bay sub-committee was set up and one of their resolutions to eliminate the scourge was to have kombi operators who use the Copacabana Rank go back to using the Coventry Road Holding Bay.

But that call has been ignored.

Zimbabwe Union of Drivers and Conductors president Fradreck Maguramhinga said the mushikashika menace is not ending in the city because of corruption.

“The problem we also have is that now corruption is rife, we hear that some kombis are allowed to operate Willy nilly and they can never be impounded for operating at mushikashika.

“Then we have some, which face the music so it is really a challenge that we are facing, this needs to be addressed, enforcement should do more to help us.

“Right now the cars that we have in the ranks may only do one trip and they may not have the requisite documents to operate because proper documents can only be obtained if one is really making profits from this business.

“So the moment they don’t have those papers they will end up operating mushikashika, so this is a time bomb which Harare has to deal with.” H-Metro