Municipal details armed with long spikes started the clampdown in the morning, chasing after errant kombis that were passing through the city centre instead of using routes that skirt the CBD.
The Zimbabwean witnessed several incidents where the metropolitan police was involved in running battles with the defiant buses, some of which had their tyres deflated by the spikes thrown at them.
There were near accidents, though, as kombi drivers attempted to flee on deflated tyres.
In one of the incidents, the police chased after a kombi coming from Chitungwiza on foot and caught up with it at the corner of First Street and Speke Avenue where it stopped after a spike punctured a rear tyre.
Passengers who were aboard vented their anger on the driver whom they accused of endangering their lives by fleeing, but the municipal police restrained them from beating him up.
“We are not joking, as these kombi drivers will know. We will not hesitate to use spikes because that is the message they know. Every clamped kombi will be released only after paying $130,” said a senior municipal police detail.
Recently, the municipal authority designated several zones that should be used by public transport operators to pick and drop passengers, among them Fourth Street, Copacabana, Charge Office, Market Square and Mbuya Nehanda.
The move is meant to decongest the city centre.
Post published in: News