Online Reporter
The Herald, 14 May 1986
ABOUT 100 people will be arrested for failing to appear in court yesterday after being issued with traffic tickets.
Harare magistrate Mr Moses Mtombeni signed warrants of arrest for 97 people yesterday afternoon and fined them $30 (or 30 days) each for contempt of court.
Only five people obeyed the summons on the traffic tickets and appeared in court. The traffic tickets had invited the accused to pay a deposit fine at police stations if they believed they were guilty and wished to avoid a court appearance. If they did not pay the deposit fine, they had to appear in court.
Mr Mtombeni said it was clear from the number of applications made by the State for the issue of warrants of arrest that many people did not take the notices seriously.
More courts were being opened to deal with the ever increasing number of cases. “These courts, I must make it clear, will not allow this kind of situation where people choose to ignore court notices, and get away with it,” said Mr Mtombeni. “A lot of manpower will be wasted in deploying members the police to arrest these accused persons.”
He then ordered the issue of warrants of arrest and the imposition of the $30 fines. Ms Lovender Chirume for the State said that there was a tendency to ignore traffic tickets. In the past, fresh summonses had been issued; but these too had been ignored.
“It is obligatory for the recipients of the tickets to appear in court on the date and time indicated on the face of the ticket. Failure to attend court now means a warrant of arrest.
“Defaulters can now expect to be arrested and locked up in cells, then brought to court to answer two charges, the first being failure to appear in court in contempt of the instruction on the ticket and the second being the original traffic offence.”
Lessons for today
- Zimbabwean courts continue to treat ignoring court notices as a serious breach of the administration of justice. The legal basis is now clearer than in 1986, then courts relied largely on summonses and discretionary enforcement. Re issuing of summonses was common before arrests.
- The core principle from 1986 still applies, ignoring a traffic ticket or court summons has legal consequences. However, the legal framework has been refined, fines have been standardised, and constitutional safeguards have strengthened since then.
