Gweru police launch operation against touts

In an interview yesterday, Officer-In-Charge of Gweru Traffic Chief Inspector Cyprain Mukahanana said the operation is also targeting unregistered commuter omnibuses and private cars that operate illegally which have congested the city centre.

He said police have so far impounded 54 vehicles mostly space bus models and commuter omnibuses under the operation, which started on Monday.

“We are trying to clear the city which had been rendered a no go area by pirating private vehicles and commuter omnibuses which have flooded the city’s Central Business District (CBD). These vehicles invade the city searching for and picking up clients. We have launched an operation code named Hwindi Ndiani. The operation is also targeting touts and we have arrested a number of them for touting for customers in the city. We are also driving away commuters themselves, who have contributed to this chaos by waiting for transport at undesignated points,” said Chief Insp Mukahanana. Chief Insp Mukahanana is in charge of the operation.

A survey conducted by Chronicle yesterday witnessed a tense atmosphere in the city centre with traffic police officers deployed at almost every street corner. The police, commuters and commuter omnibus crews were engaged in running battles for the greater part of the day as the police battled to clear the city’s CBD of touts.

Chief Insp Mukahanana said they launched the operation after pirating vehicles and commuter omnibus crews started removing number plates on their vehicles as a way of evading arrest.

“We used to take number plates of any vehicle, which would have been caught picking up passengers in the CBD, but these kombi crews and pirating vehicles had of late introduced a new tactic of removing number plates from their vehicles. We are thus pouncing on any vehicle we would find without number plates in the CBD and so far we have impounded more than 50 vehicles under the operation,” he said.

Chief Insp Mukahanana said the operation would continue until they were satisfied that Gweru CBD had been cleared of all pirating vehicles and commuter omnibuses plying their business at undesignated points.