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Gerald Maguranyanga Traffic Friday
As this week’s title indicates, Traffic Friday is paying true, heartfelt honour to the ZRP traffic cops.
That sounds like I must be kidding you, doesn’t it? Well, I am not.
In Zimbabwe, when you say “traffic police” you commonly conjure up bad guys; really stinky guys!
So corrupt are they that the police supremos, to their credit, say they have initiated a lifestyle audit for traffic police in a bid to curb rampant corruption by officers manning roadblocks.
Assistant Commissioner Kenny Mthombeni, launching an anti-corruption campaign, points out that corruption had become, a “way of life” among police officers, especially those in the traffic department. Ouch!
In fact, the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa blasts the ZRP in a report titled ‘Stealing from the State and Impoverishing the Nation: Zimbabwean Traffic Police Officers Pocketing Huge Sums of Money Through Bribes at Checkpoints’ — saying: “The sin of corruption was now so deeply-rooted to the extent that the culprits were demanding bribes publicly, as if it is was normal to do so.” Goodness!
Albeit with their dirtied cop image, Traffic Friday has been, in recent days, wowed by hardworking traffic police managing traffic flow at busy intersections in Harare. Many of the cops were fresh-faced, probably straight out of training school — and quite possibly an easy-pick to run the inglorious, unrewarding, road intersection beat!
These intersection cops seem quite dedicated to their work, even as they police traffic in difficult conditions; the blazing Harare heat by day, the windy, dusty conditions of recent months, the light rains now upon us, etc.
Traffic Friday urges motorists and “members of the public” to show respect to the police as they valiantly assist traffic control when the traffic lights go dead and when the lights need a human hand at peak times. We are dismayed though, at the disrespectful drivers that barge against the clear “stop” hand signal of the police. Truth is, without such police service, chaos on the intersection ensues, worsening the stressful traffic jams now common in Harare at peak times and whenever it rains.
The cops are just saving us from our savage selves!
Well done Traffic Police! You could control traffic more efficiently, with more ease and without undue risk to your lives though.
It is suggested by this column that police copied methods employed by other progressive police services (we hate the word “force”!) around the world in similar situations to improve competence and diminish danger.
The ZRP can adopt the use of gizmos such as the high-pitch whistle, the highly-visible fluorescent jacket (the traditional white arms have been overtaken by time), glowing gloves, the green (go) and red (stop) torch at night or in inclement weather. The megaphone, for barking out orders, seems also a good idea.
These suggested items cost each, not many dollars. And from a health perspective, clearly a cop operating for hours-on-end in a busy intersection perhaps does suffer ill-effects from noxious vehicle emissions.
Therefore, a filtered face mask is suggested. The additional use of a video recording device by a cop strategically positioned at each of these intersections may help catch agitated offenders, providing irrefutable evidence for prosecution.
It’s a Friday; let’s keep the driving, this holiday; safe and ‘happy, happy; happy-happy-happy!’
Gerald Maguranyanga moderates Road Safety Africa, on www.facebook.com/RoadSafetyAfrica , an interactive community page that solicits ideas to curb road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe and Africa. Contacts: WhatsApp only – +263 772 205 300; email: [email protected]
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