dyton mupawaenda
THE police reaction was swift and commendable yesterday after the ugly events we witnessed at the Mabvuku turn-off where two police officers were extorting drivers of various vehicles in broad daylight.
Police confirmed the arrest and detention of Sergeant James Chifamba and Constable Trymore Mukunza.
The two traffic officers were caught on camera accepting bribes from drivers of kombis, taxis and public service vehicles at the Mabvuku turn-off along the Harare-Mutare Road.
National police spokesperson, Commissioner Paul Nyathi, said investigations have since begun.
Comm Nyathi said the two cops were facing both disciplinary and criminal charges and described them as bad apples who do not deserve to be serving in the Police Service.
He said the Commissioner-General of Police does not condone corruption by any police officer and will ensure that the law takes its course without fear or favour.
We could not establish last night if the kombi drivers, who offered those bribes, would also be arrested.
However, commuters who spoke to H-Metro said the unholy marriage between kombi drivers and some traffic police officers has been one of the causes of some road traffic accidents.
They said traffic police officers can be the solution in reducing some of the road traffic accidents being recorded countrywide if they refuse to be wooed by bribes.
A number of road traffic accidents have been recorded in the country and last week five passengers perished on the spot in Kuwadzana along the Harare/Bulawayo highway.
There has been concern for some time that some of the kombis and buses do not meet even the minimum requirements for them to be on the road and to be ferried passengers. The system is designed to ensure that such vehicles do not pass police checks and this is meant to ensure that we protect the passengers.
However, once the system is compromised and those who are supposed to ensure such vehicles are not on the road do not do that simply because they would have been bribed, it creates an environment where deadly accidents happen.
The end result is the accidents that we see on our roads like the one that killed seven people in Kuwadzana last week.
We salute the ordinary citizens who decided to film those rogue police officers.
It took their intervention for evidence to be provided to the senior police officers that the Mabvuku turn-off was a crime scene and for them to act and arrest those police officers.
We need such positive contributions from members of society because together we can tame this beast. It has been common knowledge that some of our police officers have gone rogue.
The brazen actions of those police officers showed that they were comfortable in committing their crimes and gave an impression that they were a law unto themselves.
It showed that this is probably just the tip of the iceberg and the police should investigate further and they will see that more heads should roll.
Online Reporter