Police Chase Smash game, not on your phone but in Zimbabwe’s streets
The ‘war’ between kombi drivers and police officers has been going on for so long and because there is nobody to police the police, the ordinary citizens are suffering. Over the recent years police have been using forceful means to deal with public transport drivers in the country. From smashing of windscreens to Hollywood movie style chases this has been the order of the day. These forceful means have fallen short as citizens are harmed or lose their lives. There are reports of incidents of police smashing windscreens and injuring passengers. I have witnessed such incidents. Just when we thought this was bad enough the kombi operator-police war has yielded the unbearable – death. As kombi drivers try to escape from police officers they do so at full speed and in so doing go against road rules and place the life of other motorists and pedestrians at risk. In the past two months two people lost their lives in such scenarios at the Copacabana rank alone. The most recent was of an old lady who was dragged under a kombi for more than 100 metres leading to her death. The kombi was running away from a police officer.
Death is something never prepared for, but for anyone to die in this manner is more painful than the word painful itself. Even if the driver gets a life sentence or a death penalty the root cause of the problem will not have been addressed. For kombi operators and the police officers it’s now ‘a mice sees cat game’ at the risk of passengers, pedestrians and other motorists. On one hand, the mice don’t care how they will run away from the cat, as long as they don’t get caught. On the other hand, the cat will use all the powers vested in him to chase the mice. But then again at the centre of all this fight, is a mother on her way to work, a boy on his way to school, an old lady on her way to her rural home crossing the street unaware that a mouse is on the run and that their life might end. For how long will we watch lives being lost at the hands of this cat-mice fight?
Tuesday, April 23rd 2013 at 2:46 pm
This situation is now out of hand, we need a solution now. I believe we should have a public hearing where the Police, the Owners of the Combis and the Drivers are present. I for one need to know why fines are paid on a daily basis? Does this mean to say that combis should be off the road, because it seems to me by being on the road it is a crime already committed. We need to know the truth.
Wednesday, April 24th 2013 at 11:24 am
This is a very sad scenario, if our police does act in the public interest i think that someone should try and write to the police commissioner and see if he cares to put a stop to this madness. police should have better ways of managing the situation and after all they are risking peoples lives just for a $10 fine over a silly offence if i might say (that you vehicle is protruding into the street forgetting that the city council is to blame for forcing combis into a small rank). I agree with the writer above and the sad part is that the old lady you mentioned above was going to fetch medication for husband who happened to be nursing a stroke attack, can you imagine how unbearable the pain is for the family. last week 10 passengers were ferried to hosiptal in another incident of cat and mice. sadly its been going for years but who cares? who can challenge the police lest you want to get arrested yourself. the police should consider the lives of the people first before the money.