Wenslus Murape
AT the beginning of the year, police launched an ambitious operation “No to Touts” and they arrested more than 200 of them in a week’s work in Harare alone.
The operation was aimed at ridding the Harare Central Business District of touts, whose operations create chaos on the roads especially with their illegal pick up points right in the middle of town, inconveniencing businesses, pedestrians and other road users.
However, despite the success of that period of the operation, the chaos returned as soon as the cops moved on.
Even during the operation, some of the touts remained defiant and engaged in running battles with the police and in the end the operation got riskier when the troublesome kombis would drive against traffic while evading the law enforcers.
This endangered lives of passengers, pedestrians and those in oncoming traffic.
But while the touts and their kombis are a known menace, the commuters themselves have been a very big contributor to the problem as they are the ones who stop and wait for the kombis at illegal pick up points.
The commuters do not want to walk to the designated ranks and, instead, create their own pick up points in the middle of the CBD and in the process create the chaos on the roads, including congestion which is a daily occurrence.
One of the explanations given for the never-ending crisis is that both police and Harare City Council’s traffic department only detain the troublesome kombi crews briefly and then releasing them to return and resume their dirty work.
During the operation early this year, the convicted touts were handed a three-month wholly suspended sentence having been charged with contravening Section 40 of the Road Motor Transportation Act.
What is however, clear is that the major reason there are these menacing kombis and also mushikashika vehicles on the roads is that the commuters are enablers.
If all commuters only waited for transport at the designated pick up points and also used only the approved public transport operators then the roads will be safer, decongested and mushikashika vehicles will disappear.
The Harare City Council has been putting “No hitch-hiking” signs, especially along Sam Nujoma Street where commuters to Mazowe, Bindura and beyond wait for transport in the Avenues area where there are no designated pick-up points.
As a result, long-distance buses, kombis, haulage trucks and mushikashika vehicles scramble for passengers and block two lanes and, in the process, cause congestion especially after hours.
It is time the law enforces launch a campaign to arrest the commuters who wait for transport where there are no designated pick up points above the usual raids on the transporters.
Such an operation will go a long way to restore order on roads. Arresting the transporters and leaving the commuters does not solve the problem.
Online Reporter