Online Reporter
THE chaos we see on Zimbabwean roads, especially in city centres and other crowded areas, needs to be effectively addressed.
It is rare to drive for more than an hour through central Harare, for example, without seeing an accident and the only surprise is that with so many drivers taking so many risks, there are not far more accidents.
It only needs a couple of the worst bullies to hit an intersection simultaneously for there to be a serious collision.
Road rules are in place so that traffic can be orderly and safe and that access to parking, priority at intersections and the like can be fair, with everyone taking their turn.
If we all followed the Highway Code, accidents would be exceptionally rare, driving would be significantly less stressful and generally, roads would be safer and less congested.
Mobilising hundreds of police officers 24 hours a day to enforce traffic rules is not a practical solution and even then, they would miss most offences.
When police roadblocks or patrols are in place, drivers are all law-abiding and correct as they drive past the officers and then return to the state of anarchy once out of sight. So, other solutions need to be found, ones that keep them in view of the law enforcement at all times.
A Smart Traffic Management System has been developed by Zimbabwean engineers to do precisely this and has been under test in parts of central Harare for several weeks now.
The results are spectacular, so much so that Cabinet has ordered the acceleration of the rollout and extended implementation.
The very modest police traffic unit operating the system has been following up on those who are seen to be breaking rules.
We are even getting lists of offenders published in the media and inviting them to pop in and pay their fines, rather than wait to be picked up by the squad sent out to bring in those who are reluctant to accept their invitation.
The system, using a range of hardware and software, uses cameras to capture images, modern automated speed traps, and integrated access to the databases of Zinara, which licences all vehicles, the Central Vehicle Registry, which has the details of every vehicle and its owner, and Civil Registry, which will be useful when a particular individual is being hunted down.
Smart software recognises number plates and faces and a lot of drudgery and going through records is automated.
Basically the human needing the information is told that car such-and-such owned by so-and-so of this address has just gone through a red light while speeding.
This means a handful of police officers can monitor a vast area, and can even backtrack into what was happening during a peak period when things are quieter, and can assemble the details of each offence, track down the latest information on the vehicle and its owner, and then deal with the owner.
If it is a company vehicle or if the owner has allocated the vehicle to a friend or family member, that does not seem to be a problem. The owner will have the details of the driver and can make sure that the driver calls in at the police station or fines office.
The whole system is cost-effective, which is necessary, but in this case the active concept is “effective” since it works far better than any alternative as well as being a lot cheaper.
The other point we would like to note is that there is no temptation placed in the way of the police officers using the system to enforce the law.
Rich people will not be able to suggest substantial bribes since there is zero contact until the images are processed and the lists made up. You cannot offer a bribe to a computer and if there is no possibility of corruption, then there is no corruption.
The other point the Government is making is that the system is not one of those expensive imported systems brought in by costly external consultants, the sort of solution that is often used in Zimbabwe where local experts are considered not good enough.
In this case, the system is home grown using Zimbabwean expertise and Zimbabweans who do know what they are doing. This should cut costs, but equally importantly it means it is designed for Zimbabwean conditions, Zimbabwean laws and Zimbabwean operators.
No one has to adjust or rebuild the system to suit our needs: it was built right the first time.
Part of the difficulty sometimes in using Zimbabwean solutions is that tender and other requirements need a list of work already done, a sort of CV, and if you are not allowed to do work then there is no list.
Someone in authority decided to use other criteria in this case, probably that the development team looked competent and gave them the go ahead to develop what was wanted. Perhaps payment was based on results.
Similar sorts of thinking are needed in many other areas and auditors and others checking on value for money and payment based on results should be able to design suitable tender and contract documents that allow respectable Zimbabwean professionals to show their innovation and competence and still cut out those who cheat or who are simply not up to scratch.
Since many other cities in our region have the same sort of extreme downtown traffic anarchy, there might well be good foreign customers for the design team of our traffic management system, especially if they are willing to bring in experts from those customers to implement the system in each case, showing the same respect for local talent as they are getting in Zimbabwe.
With all the boxes ticked, of effectiveness, value for money and local innovation, Cabinet clearly had no hesitation in following up the successful tests, and they did want to make sure it worked first, and then accelerated the rollout.
