I’m beginning to think that my car is a magnet for attracting spot fine roadblocks. I was stopped again at a roadblock this morning. From previous experience I was semi prepared for another sit-in.

This morning’s police officer was nicer, but used the same threats. He asked for my driver’s license and then inspected my car. Finding a faded rear reflector (pictured above) the officer told me I would have to pay a $10 spot fine.

I told him I had no money and could not pay there and then, but was happy to be given a ticket to pay later.

The officer told me that they would take my car to the nearest VID, insisted that the spot fine had to be paid immediately, and told me to call someone. Another officer even came by and told me to call someone to bring the money for the fine.

I refused and told him again to give me a ticket. Finally, the officer took down my car’s license plate number and my name, and told me to replace my reflector.

Later, I spoke with Superintendent Andrew Phiri at Zimbabwe Republic Police General Headquarters who clarified what is supposed to happen when you are stopped at a roadblock and asked to pay a fine.

When you have been stopped by the police at a roadblock and you are found to be without a driver’s license, proper registration or any other fineable offense you have two options:

The first is to pay the spot fine the second is to be given a ticket.

If you pay the spot fine you are to be given a green form, which is your receipt. The green form is an admission of guilt form no: Z69J.

If you disagree or refuse to pay the fine, you may appear in court to contest.  The police at the roadblock should give you a white form no: 265. The form will give you the court date on which you are to appear in court. The court date is set for between 7 and 14 days after the date of issue of the form. You may also pay the fine on or before this date.

If you do not have your driver’s license you should be issued a ‘production form’ and you have seven days to take your driver’s license to the nearest police station, where upon the ticket will be cancelled.

Police at roadblocks may use their discretion in issuing tickets and giving cautions.

If you are threatened with having your car impounded or taken to VID this is a scare tactic to make you pay the fine. The police are not legally enabled to do so.

From IFEX:

UNESCO won’t honour Africa’s longest-serving dictator with namesake prize

UNESCO has once again announced it will not reinstate a life sciences prize funded by and named after Africa’s longest-serving dictator, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, report Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The decision comes after passionate lobbying by IFEX members and other international and African rights groups. On 27 September, IFEX and 10 members and partners sent a letter to UNESCO director general Irina Bokova, urging her not to reinstate the UNESCO-Obiang prize given the “well-documented record of human rights abuse, repression of press freedom, and official corruption that have marked his rule.”

On 3 October, prominent authors, scientists and other public figures, including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, also sent UNESCO a letter decrying the prize and pointing out that it is likely funded by corruption, given criminal investigations in France and Spain into the source of the Obiang family’s mass wealth, including luxury cars.

Due to international outcry, the prize has never been awarded since its launch three years ago, despite yearly efforts by Obiang and other African diplomats to have it reinstated. UNESCO has not yet taken the step rights groups would like to see, however, which is the final cancellation of the award.

As Tutu Alicante, executive director of the non-governmental group EG Justice, argues, “The UNESCO Board needs to end this debate once and for all by rejecting this prize outright. UNESCO delegates should not let themselves be bullied into backing a public relations campaign by President Obiang.”

Every year, the first Monday of October is set aside to commemorate Habitat Day. On this day reflections are made on the state of our towns and cities, basic rights for all, and access to adequate shelter. For Amnesty International, World Habitat Day is a global day to take action to end forced evictions and other human rights violations suffered daily by people living in slums and informal settlements. In commemoration of this years’ World Habitat Day, Amnesty International Zimbabwe remembered the survivors of Operation Murambatsvina with the theme “End Forced Evictions’. Many families were displaced and left homeless when the government of Zimbabwe initiated its unpopular and inhuman Operation Murambatsvina. Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle then followed to resettle these families but, however, today years later no proper essential facilities and services have been provided for these families such as sanitation, education, housing and health.

A drama group from Hopley and Hatclife settlements where many of the families affected by Operation Murambatsvina are settled took time to remind Zimbabwe of how they are living. They had their own exhibition of their plastics shacks at the Harare Gardens. Some operate hair saloons, or bars and some sell firewood, or vegetables. The shacks take various shapes and forms but they all exhibit the plight of how our government has failed its people in so many ways. In these informal settlements education is a privilege whereas it should be a right for all children. In these settlements safe drinking water does not exist, as their water sources are unprotected wells. ‘The walls have ears’, is a saying you wont be caught saying in these settlements because their housing is little more than thin plastic.

Therefore Amnesty International of Zimbabwe in remembering the survivors of Operation Murambatsvina is calling on the government of Zimbabwe to:
End all forced evictions
Adopt guidelines based on the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development Based Evictions and Displacement
Provide free primary education for children living under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle

This morning, in a long-awaited bail hearing Justice Maphios Cheda of the Bulawayo High Court granted Jenni Williams and Magondonga Mahlangu of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) bail on a surety of $200 each, after 13 nights in custody.  The only condition is that they not interfere with any state witnesses.  They have not been asked to surrender travel documents or even to report to the police.  They will appear for remand on Thursday, October 6.

It is clear from this ruling that the judge did not take the case against them very seriously, and we wonder why it took so long for a bail hearing date to be set down.  Was the state attempting simply to punish the two by arresting and holding them on flimsy charges, knowing that in fact they have committed no crime?  If so, it would not be the first time this has happened.  WOZA is dismayed that under the Government of National Unity such a perversion of justice continues, with elements of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the justice system allowed to operate untrammelled without the slightest concern for the basic principles of law and human rights.  We hope that there will be no further delays and they will be released promptly, as is their right.

WOZA would like to thank all those supporters who showed solidarity with Williams and Mahlangu through the past two weeks. Together we can promote a more democratic society in which rights are respected and social justice prevails.

While getting food with my other this weekend I spotted some policemen patrolling the Pomona food court area and I commented how much safer I felt seeing the familiar neon green vest over khakis milling about.

“Ah! They’re useless.’ He said. ‘But their presence will scare people into behaving.”

His cynicism was well founded. He had been robbed the previous weekend. His roommate had been asleep, while the thieves pried the front door open. By the looks of the place the next day, it seemed as though they had taken their time. They took every valuable thing they could find including the kettle. I suppose they were humanist robbers, because they were decent enough to leave the radio, and return his roommates passport, which had been in the same bag as a laptop and several hundred dollars. Being an avid fan of CSI Miami, my other hoped a Zimbabwean version of Horatio would show up (sunglasses optional), to dust for prints, check for DNA and solve the crime.  He didn’t. Instead a crack team of barely interested CID officers came. They dusted for prints and filed a report as a formality, and succeeded in scaring him into considering buying a gun.

A few nights after the robbery, the police set up a road block a hundred metres away from my other’s flat. He stopped to jokingly shout at them for being too late to stop the robbery at his place. They laughed, but in the conversation he had with them, they complained about a lack of respect from the public. People did not want to stop at roadblocks.

Telling me about it later he remarked, ‘It’s their own fault; they should stop asking for bribes and just do their jobs. At least the roadblock will scare the robbers from coming back for some time, so we can make the house more secure.’

My purse, along with my Zimbabwean National ID card, driver’s license and some money was stolen on a night out a few months ago. Dutifully, I went to my nearest police station to report it. The officer in charge wrote down the details of what had happened in a big book. He then wrote a reference number on a torn slip of paper. When I went to the Central Vehicle Registry to get a replacement driver’s license, the woman at the window rudely told me that my reference number was not sufficient, and they needed an actual form.  When I went back to the police station to request it, I was informed that they didn’t have it, but whichever officer I was talking to could find it, provided I gave him $5 or $10 for his trouble.  I didn’t want to pay a bribe; I’d stop occasionally to find out if the forms had come. Finally I gave up.

The police have stopped me on several occasions, and when they find nothing wrong with my car, they usually ask for my driver’s license. At some roadblocks, they’ve asked for my ID number then called CVR to verify. At others they’ve taken my details and given me a ticket to be paid later. This morning I encountered one where a police officer demanded I make payment immediately.

He was an arrogant, swaggering sort of policeman, anozvinzwa shuga. Having done a cursory inspection of my car, he asked for my license. I gave him a certified copy of my passport and told him what happened at the CVR. He delivered a condescending monologue on police procedure, and what he understood of the law.

‘That’s great’, I replied,’ but in my case that’s not what happened.’

‘Saka todii?’ he asked.

I told him the law said that I had seven days to present my license or pay a fine at nearest police station and that since I had neither a license nor money on my person he should write me a ticket. He replied that I was lying. I lost my temper and shouted at him. He said that if I wanted to leave I would have to pay $20.

The men in my life, my other included, have always accused me of being volatile, particularly when I’m angry. My brothers always say ‘Zvako zve marights ako zvicha kurovesa’ when they have to get me out of trouble.

When I shoved my purse in the officer’s face to shown him it was empty, he said, Imi amai, regai kuita naro. Kana tichida tino gona kuimpounda mota yenyu. Asi murikuda kusungwa?’ (Look lady stop arguing. We can impound your vehicle if we want to. Are you trying to get arrested?)

I got even angrier and told him that I pay taxes and therefore do not pay bribes, and of course shouted some more:

‘You’re a police officer; your job is to help the public!’

‘Handina basa naizvozvo amai, fonerai munhu auye nemari.’ (I don’t care about any of that; call someone to bring the money for you).

Thankfully, he walked away, and I had enough presence of mind not get out of my car and really lay into him.

Finding that I was not going to pay, and had made myself somewhat comfortable at the roadblock, the police eventually let me go. I think most times people do pay the bribe because they are in a hurry to get where they are going. Not everyone is angry enough to sit in simmering protest at a roadblock. But imagine if we did, and we stopped letting misinformed police officers break the laws they are supposed to uphold.

A different officer finally came to my car and heard me out. He even helped me get the form I needed to take to the CVR. As I drove away he said, ‘Musaore moyo amai, mapurisa ese haana kufanana.’ (Don’t be bitter, not all police officers are the same.)