In an exclusive interview, Komichi, who is also the MDC-T national Vice Chairman, described the local transport sector as “jungle” that needed to be cleaned up. He revealed that over 80 percent of public transporters did not have operating licences and blamed the police for turning a blind eye.
“The road public transport sector is so haphazard. What is confusing is that the police are always on the roads, yet so many commuter vehicles are not registered. What are the police doing?” he said.
“Some senior police officers have compromised professionalism and order on the roads. They own some of these defaulting vehicles and junior officers cannot arrest them, otherwise they will be in trouble. That becomes a major source of corruption because the juniors will ignore other defaulters and instead demand bribes.”
President Robert Mugabe, while addressing the Zanu (PF) annual conference in Gweru in December last year, expressed concern over police corruption and forced them to scale down the number of roadblocks that had become a money-spinning venture.
The ZRP was reported to be raising millions of dollars from the highways and using the money in a non-transparent manner. It was also reportedly paying traffic officers thousands of dollars a week as unauthorised allowances. Komichi also took aim at parastatals falling under his ministry—Air Zimbabwe, National railways of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company—over political manipulation.
“These parastatals are failing to perform because they have been heavily politicised. Board members are political appointees who make political rather than business decisions. Zupco, as an example, has suffered severely because its buses have been used to ferry Zanu (PF) supporters to rallies for no payment. That must stop,” he said.
Komichi said there was need to “sanitise” the transport sector, which he said had “developed a culture of impunity, immorality and criminality”. The ministry recently announced a national transport policy meant to return sanity to the sector.
Post published in: News