Chronicle Editor
Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT has gazetted a statutory instrument authorising law enforcement officers to impound vehicles being used to violate lockdown restrictions with owners or drivers of the vehicles liable to prosecution.
Last week, President Mnangagwa announced new measures aimed at stopping the spread of covid-19.
These include a dusk to dawn curfew and tightening of other regulations to curb the spread of the virus.
Businesses’ operating hours have been reduced to 8am to 3pm while deliberate or reckless transmission of Covid-19 has been criminalised.
All travel by those who are in non-essential services, in or out of vehicles, is prohibited.
In terms of lockdown regulations, Government now has the sole responsibility for inter-city travel for those that require to travel and Zupco buses are the only public transport vehicles authorised to provide urban transport.
According to Statutory Instrument 186 of 2020, police are empowered to seize any public transport vehicle or other vehicle which doesn’t fall under the category of essential services, to carry passengers for commercial purposes. The statutory instrument however does not state for how long the police can keep the impounded vehicle.
Part of the SI 186/20 reads: “Where any public transport vehicle or other vehicle used for the transport of passengers for gain, is used in connection with any offence under this Order (prohibiting the operation of such transport) an enforcement officer, if such vehicle is used again after the driver or owner thereof has been warned or charged for such offence, shall have the power to seize such vehicle as an exhibit in connection with the prosecution of such owner or driver for such offence in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07).”
Government has completed working on guidelines for the transport sector and they are now being studied by Ministry of Health and Child Care to ensure that they are in line with protocols that curb the spread and transmission of Covid.
Government last week warned that police officers will impound all vehicles moving without number plates as part of measures to fight robbery.
Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga also warned errant kombi drivers against violating lockdown regulations, saying police will make sure that there is no non-essential human and vehicular traffic movement during the curfew hours.
Comm-Gen Matanga said no inter-city public transport and rural areas movement will be allowed to proceed beyond checkpoints and roadblocks.
He also warned motorists who are in the habit of travelling at night to evade police, saying they risk being arrested and charged for violating Covid-19 regulations.
In Bulawayo, police last week impounded 90 vehicles for lockdown defiance. — @mashnets
Online Reporter