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 |  Subject: Zimbabwean traffic poLICE officers are the most corrupt in SADC  Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:00 am | |
| JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean traffic police officers are the most corrupt in SADC according to the Anti-Corruption Trust of Southern Africa (ACT-Southern Africa).
In a recent report entitled “Corruption by traffic police officers and vehicle drivers in Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe” ACT gave details of how Zimbabwe could be losing substantial amounts of revenue to its traffic police officers.
The report was sent to Melusi Matshiya, Permanent Secretary in the Zimbabwe Ministry of Home Affairs in November 2011, but so far he has not even acknowledged receipt.
South African-based lawyer, Gabriel Shumba, said this week the Zimbabwean government’s silence on the report could be interpreted as tacit admission of guilt in complicity with the police force, and was an indictment of its corrupt tendencies. ACT-Southern Africa, set up in 2004 to campaign against corruption in the region, released the report after a researcher travelled by road in public transport from Windhoek to Harare via Botswana, through the Mamuno border post.
“We have not yet heard anything from the Zimbabwean government, despite the numerous emails that we have written to them about the report,” said Shumba. “We have tried to call them on many occasions, but it seems that they do not want anything to do with the report and our conclusion now is that they acknowledge the corruption is there in the ZRP, they know about it and are rubber-stamping it.”
In an email sent on November 10 and seen by The Zimbabwean ACT asked Matshiya to take action on the reported graft.
The report also reveals that transport business operators in Zimbabwe and Namibia are losing substantial income due to bribes paid by their drivers to corrupt traffic police officers. The researcher noted that transactions between corrupt traffic police officers and drivers took place openly and without any shame. The nature of the conversations between them showed that they knew each other and had been paying and receiving bribes for a long time.
There were also many incidents in which police officers demanded bribes without any sign of fear or compunction. Some did beat around the bush, first asking drivers to choose between paying a prescribed traffic fine or paying a lesser amount for a police officer’s drink.
The researcher said that in Zimbabwe, the bus was stopped by police and made to pay bribes of between US$10 and US$20 at each of several roadblocks only a few kilometres apart. The report warned that the culture of corruption was deep-seated with the rank and file of the force. It urged the governments of to monitor traffic police on a constant but irregular level, to ensure that those involved in corrupt activities were caught and exposed.
“Whenever possible, governments are encouraged to lay traps and all those caught should be prosecuted and dismissed from the force. Anti-Corruption bodies should be established and empowered to deal with these kinds of offences. Laws, policy and practice should be established that encourage whistleblowers to report corruption, especially those who feel tempted to pay bribes,” read the report.
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