Online Reporter
Court Reporter
A RECKLESS Harare kombi driver has been banned from driving commuter omnibuses for life after he smashed into another vehicle while fleeing police and was found guilty of a string of offences including having no driver’s licence.
Consider Mandava (34) pleaded guilty to driving without a valid licence, failing to obey police instructions, reckless driving and supplying false information to authorities.
On August 22 Mandava was caught operating a Toyota Hiace kombi illegally.
Court documents reveal Mandava stopped at a dangerous spot to load passengers, prompting Sergeant Madzorera to arrest him and order him to proceed to Mbare Police Station.
Defying orders, Mandava fled the scene, running through a red robot at the busy Nazareth intersection, where he collided with a Ford Ranger that had the right of way.
He was arrested with help from other motorists, but attempted to conceal his identity by giving false details during processing.
Justice Esther Muremba, presiding over the review of Mandava’s hearing, confirmed the conviction, but corrected the sentencing errors made by the trial magistrate over the driving bans although the magistrate had the other sentencing correct.
While Mandava was initially banned from driving all vehicle classes for two years, the High Court ruled this was legally incorrect.
Mandava’s driving prohibition was therefore amended to a lifetime ban on Class 2 vehicles, including commuter omnibuses, and a six-month ban on other vehicles.
The court criticised the magistrate for misapplying the law and recommended urgent retraining to avoid further judicial errors in road traffic cases.
Mandava will be formally notified of the corrected driving ban following his recall from custody.
“This justification is fundamentally flawed. Firstly, there is no Section 54(3)(i) in the Road Traffic Act. Secondly, Section 54 pertains to offences involving driving with a prohibited concentration of alcohol in the blood, which is not applicable in the present matter,” said the judge.
“The correct provision governing penalties for reckless driving of a commuter omnibus is Section 53(4) of the Road Traffic Act.
“A careful reading of Section 53(4)(a)(ii) reveals that, in the absence of special circumstances, a first-time offender convicted of reckless driving involving a commuter omnibus must be prohibited from driving such vehicles for life.”
In addition, the offender must be prohibited from driving other classes of motor vehicles for a minimum period of six months, said Justice Muremba.
“The magistrate’s imposition of a two-year prohibition across all vehicle classes is therefore legally incorrect. It shows that either the magistrate did not read section 53(4)(a)(ii), or if she did, she did not understand it at all,” reads part of Justice Muremba’s judgment.
