Online Reporter
Muchaneta Chimuka
THE Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has launched a crime and road safety awareness campaign at Roadport Bus Terminus in Harare as the nation gears for the festive season, characterised by a lot of travelling.
The major aim of the campaign is to reduce carnage on the roads and the loss of lives due to accidents.
The campaign was running the theme: “Towards a Safe, Secure and Peaceful Festive Season”.
Festive seasons are often characterised by accidents and passengers have been urged to report bad driving, while transport operators are also obliged to register their vehicles for speed limit tracking through the ZRP.
Officer Commanding Harare Province, Commissioner Maxwell Chikunguru, launched the campaign and he managed to visit some of the transporters and interfaced with passengers in the buses, giving information on road safety awareness issues.
He said the initiative is going to cascade to other districts.
“The festive season is upon us. It is a time for family reunions, joyful celebrations, religious observances, and increased travel across our provinces and beyond,” he said.
“While excitement is at its peak, let us be mindful that this period brings heightened risks, more vehicles and increased movement of people, an increase in criminal activities and accidents too.
“This call to action is for everyone to join hands and reduce accidents on our beautiful roads.”
He urged motorists to shun drug and substance abuse to reduce accidents and also to desist from engaging in human and drug trafficking.
“All motorists who shall be found driving motor vehicles without number plates will risk being arrested and their vehicles shall be impounded and will only be released upon production of their registration papers and number plates,” he said.
“Therefore, let’s all abide by the Road Traffic Act. We are also warning motorists from driving accident-damaged vehicles with no police records of such accidents and we often see those vehicles covered with plastics as windscreens,” said Comm. Chikunguru.
He urged long-distance buses to register their vehicles for the speed monitoring system at the Harare Central Police Station.
“We are operating 24 hours to do the registration and this helps bus owners to monitor the speed of their drivers,” he said.
“At the moment registration is voluntary, but sooner or later it will become compulsory. Speeding, overloading and negligent driving continue to claim precious lives. Resist the temptation to engage in these dangerous practices, value life, not profit.”
Comm. Chikunguru highlighted some of the traffic offenses that the police will be on the lookout for such as over speeding, use of cell phones while driving, failure to use pedestrian crossing, observation of road rules and regulations, pedestrians to walk on the right side of the road and not to wearing headphones or earphones while crossing the road, passengers throwing items through the windows, overloading, drinking and driving, following too closely, parking and dropping passengers at undesignated points and driving unfit vehicles among others.
He said they chose to launch the campaign at Roadport since it was the critical hub for transport, which connects Zimbabwe with neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, Tanzania and other destinations.
