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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Court Reporter
A HARARE city traffic officer has been dragged to the magistrates court after he unlawfully clamped a commuter omnibus parked at a rank after the driver refused to buy him lunch to secure the vehicle.
The matter became the first in which city clamping has been contested in a criminal court, although several other cases have been dealt with at the High Court’s Civil Division.
Ngoma Kosamu towed away the vehicle after Mr Mike Mutamba refused to honour his demands.
He appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Phrasia Mapfumo yesterday charged with criminal abuse of office and the matter was postponed to next week for trial.
Kosamu clamped the vehicle at Simon Muzenda Street bus terminus for alleged dangerous parking and took it to the council’s yard where he allegedly added fictitious charges to ensure it stayed for a long period while storage charges accumulated.
The manner in which council officials operate has been challenged at the High Court (Civil Division), with several applicants describing it as “mafia style” or “bullying”.
According to the State outline in Kosamu’s case, the incident occurred on June 16 this year when Mr Mutamba parked his bus at the rank.
While passengers were disembarking, Kosamu, who was not wearing a council uniform, arrived and asked him to buy food.
Mr Mutamba did not buy the food, prompting Kosamu to threaten him, while declaring that as long as he was on duty the vehicle would not be allowed to operate.
Kosamu then summoned a wrecker that towed the vehicle away.
Upon arrival at the council yard, Kosamu framed six other charges which were: obstruction of road by motor vehicles, picking and dropping at undesignated points, failure to produce a valid road service permit, failure to display a rank disc, failure to display valid vehicle licence disc and touting for passengers.
The vehicle was detained for 14 days until Mr Mutamba made a report to the police, resulting in Kosamu’s arrest.
Kosamu’s actions, according to the State, were unlawful and inconsistent from the normal operations of municipality traffic officers.
Meanwhile, motorists have been complaining over the manner in which City Park was clamping vehicles.
Motorists with bigger denominations of money are at risk of having their cars clamped because the marshals are strictly accepting $1 notes.
Online Reporter