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Last week two Bulawayo High Court judges deplored what they described as a growing culture among kombi crews to disregard police orders or assault police officers on duty.
The judges, Justices Martin Makonese and Andrew Mutema, were reported in a local daily confirming a 48-month jail sentences imposed on three commuter omnibus touts who had been convicted of kidnapping and beating up a police constable in the city last week. They said the behaviour of the touts undermined the authority of the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
“The court is concerned by incidences involving kombi drivers and crews who impede police officers carrying out their duties by assaulting them,” said Justice Makonese.
“In civilised society, this kind of behaviour is not acceptable. It has caused disrespect of police officers and puts the Zimbabwe Republic Police into disrepute.”
This came as a salutary intervention by the courts in a growing scourge which should be cause for alarm in society. We have had many incidents here in Harare where kombi drivers have defied police orders to stop and have caused several pedestrian fatalities in the city centre as they tried to flee the law.
Hardly was the ink dry on this ruling, we had a report in The Herald of three police officers being arrested in Murehwa after they fatally assaulted a kombi driver on Saturday.
Initial reports indicate that the police officers, who were manning a roadblock between Murehwa centre and Marondera town, asked for a US$10 bribe from the kombi driver after they arrested him for a traffic offence. The kombi driver claimed he only had US$5.
This led to the attack, or, according to the police report, five police officers “manhandling the deceased intending to handcuff him since he was resisting”. During the scuffle, the kombi driver reportedly fell to the ground and subsequently died.
This is extremely sad and turns the tables against the police. It is hard to understand why an offence with a penalty of just US$10 should warrant an immediate arrest.
We can only hope that investigations will unravel the truth and the law be allowed to take its course. It’s cold comfort though given the already badly poisoned relationship between the police and members of the public.
There is growing perception that the ZRP is corrupt, that its traffic officers routinely demand and take bribes and that generally, instead of enforcing the law, the police break it. This is said to be responsible for the bad blood which exists between the police and kombi crews.
And the latest killing can only make a bad situation worse.
Wrongly or otherwise, members of the public tend to be sympathetic to the allegations against the police. That is a badly ruined reputation that will take many years for the police to repair. Trust lost is always difficult to recover, and that is the hard task which the ZRP must deal with.
It is an unenviable task, but also one the ZRP has wrought on itself.
Kombi drivers and their touts on the one hand and the police on the other must learn to be part of “civilised society” which the judges referred to above. Both must respect the law, but even more importantly, the sanctity of human life over Mammon.
Online Reporter