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to stop their illegal practice as failure to do so will see them facing the full wrath of the law.
Minister Goche said pirate taxi operators had led to insanity in the cities and towns as well as major highways.
In an interview on Friday after his tour of Bulawayo-Plumtree Road, which is being rehabilitated by Group Five of South Africa, Minister Goche said it was a serious criminal offence to operate an unlicensed vehicle to carry passengers.
He said most road accidents were being caused by unregistered transport operators whose vehicles congest major highways and urban areas.
Minister Goche said police were mandated to “remove” unlicensed and illegal vehicles from the country’s roads and urban centres.
“We cannot talk about unlicensed operators because in the first place operating a public vehicle without a licence is criminal. Police are responsible and should remove private and unlicensed operators from the country’s roads.
“These people are causing a lot of problems on our roads. What I want to stress is that anyone who is operating an unlicensed vehicle is committing an offence and will be arrested,” said Minister Goche.
He said although it was not within the powers of his ministry to monitor the situation, police and local authorities had been given the mandate to ensure all vehicles were registered.
Minister Goche commended the police for launching an operation code-named “100 Percent Decongest the City” in Bulawayo recently saying they had the backing of the Government.
“Government has come up with a policy to decongest the CBDs. It is a threat to safety and very unhealthy to have many cars at the same time in city centres and as such there is a need to ensure that the number of cars, especially public vehicles, is reduced,” said Minister Goche.
“We have heard about running battles in Bulawayo and the truth is police have been authorised to decongest the city in partnership with the local authority so that there is sanity.”
Minister Goche said the Government should encourage local authorities to avail more space for construction of termini for public transport and parking.
“Plans are underway to ensure that all local authorities avail enough space for parking for these public transport operators so that they do not congest cities. In the meantime we should ensure normalcy returns by removing unregistered vehicles,” he said.
When the operation was launched in Bulawayo on 6 July, police in conjunction with the city council wanted to eliminate illegal pick-up points and unregistered operators.
Meanwhile, Minister Goche said Zimbabweans could no longer import left-hand vehicles saying such vehicles were a hazard on the country’s roads.
He, however, said those returning from the diaspora will still be allowed to bring in such cars.
This comes at a time when a lot of left-hand vehicles are stuck at border posts as the owners are failing to get customs clearance certificates from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.
Online Reporter