By Fidelis Munyoro
Strips of spikes used by police to stop vehicles refusing to obey orders to halt are fully legal and any court trying to ban them would be tantamount to legalising crime and disempowering police from maintaining law and order, the High Court has ruled.
The Passengers Association of Zimbabwe had sued police, seeking an interdict prohibiting officers from using the strips of spikes and smashing windscreens of private taxis to halt pirate taxis and kombis, saying that this conduct endangered the lives of the public and cause blatant unlawful and malicious damage to private property that police are supposed to protect.
Police have implemented internal procedures that have limited the use of spikes and teargas and stopped the smashing of windscreens for traffic violations. But spikes are seen as an effective way of halting a vehicle whose driver refuses to stop when ordered to, and a way of halting a vehicle using minimum force. Police introduced spikes to replace the use of firearms, which could cause unintended injury or death.
Spikes deflate all tyres of a vehicle, bringing it to a halt, but without the risks entailed when police shoot at a vehicle’s tyres and miss. In most cases a driver seeing spikes across the road decides to obey the halt order given rather than try and escape.
Police needing to use spikes are now expected to follow procedures set out in the Police Weapons Handling manual.
In this regard, police only resort to spikes to deal with pirate taxis that are breaching important road rules, endangering many lives and which refuse to stop when orrdered to do so.
It was on this basis that Justice Owen Tagu refused to grant the application by PAZ, finding that for the court to do so would be to sanitise crime and disempower the police from enforcing law and order.
“To grant the application would be tantamount to legalising the actions of these errant motorists as the police would be incapacitated to deal with them,” he said.
The court accepted the police argument that operators of pirate taxis commonly known as mushikashika, were not just committing traffic offences only but other crimes that could be classified as more dangerous. Some of the crimes include drug abuse, harassment of commuters especially women, and theft and robberies committed by people in the unregistered vehicles, which are mostly driven by immature and unlicensed drivers.
Police also argued that the conduct of the pirate taxis had resulted in a spike of pedestrian deaths as they are run over by vehicles fleeing police officers. Police also argued that touts employed by errant drivers, assault and kill police officers when they try to impound their vehicles and arrest the violators.
Through its legal counsel, PAZ argued that police should be barred from practicing this “rudimentary” and “barbaric” way of enforcing traffic offence law.
The organisation further criticised the police conduct which they said had caused harm to passengers of the public and private vehicles and in some cases, the death of victims. The Chronicle
Thought the new dispensation popularized itself by making the police force a decent force. Why go back to the days pavaiita madiro aGeorgina
Shepherd Mutandwa someone is looking for mani
This court is putting human lives in danger
Zvinogadzira nyika yakaparara here izvozvo vamwe vari busy kugadzira ma spaghetti roads ku Ghana uko imwi muri busy nema spikes
Next they are going to legalize the smashing people’s windscreens!
Essien Gumede vakatobvumirwa
Sam Sam Links kkkkkk
Kkkkkk what else can the captured beings say
ED achipinda akazvibvisa zvikanzi its wrong but nhs zvakunzi bhoo zanu so
Ko munotyeyi kumiswa nepolice kana musina mhosva
Sam Sam Links its not ordinary citizens vanotya.. madriver ema kombi ne mota dzemushikashika. Sometimes spikes are thrown at kombis loaded with passengers and in some cases the vehicles have overturned or hit pedestrians whilst out of control, ndo pane problem
On the same token the high court does not make laws it’s supposed to interpret the law.
Pfuti Hamurevesi the high court is misinterpreting the law and that is where the problem starts
I wish they threw those spikes in a kombi that is carrying the parents of of the judge who made the ruling.
what can u expect
Yes,it is legal when they are manning a roadblock…not when they move around town throwing spikes to whichever vehicle they wish to stop…u cnt throw spikes to a moving vehicle.Let police use them in the ryt way.