Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) takes note of the ongoing Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) national operation Tame The Traffic Jungle.
The operation which began on 12 September and is scheduled to run until 26 September according to a circular, and involves other state agencies such as Vehicle Inspection Department (VID), Central Vehicle Registry (CVR), Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) and local city councils, is meant to curb the flouting of traffic laws, and tackling unregistered and unlicensed vehicles.
Whilst we as an association hold no brief for any law offenders, it is critical for us to highlight that the operation has brought untold inconvenience to our membership, the informal economy and the public at large. Many informal economy workers have reported that they are being dropped off well away from the Central Business District (CBD) due to fear of arrests by operators, high transport fares, with increases from US$1 to US$2.50 on some routes, long queues, cases of robbery, where traders board private vehicles in desperation to get home, only to fall prey to robbers, amongst other challenges.
What we find mind boggling is that ZRP is on the roads every day, where these commuter omnibuses pass through and are often let go, so the question for us is does it only take an operation of this magnitude for action to be taken against the commuter operators? Are there no better, modern traffic enforcement mechanisms that can deal with the scourge? Has the ZRP and Harare City Council not taken note of how other cities such as Bulawayo designed their transport system in order to free the CBD from the chaos of commuter omnibuses?
As a way forward, we suggest that the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, ZRP, and local authorities sit down and study on how best to come up with a modern urban transport system that can sustainably cure the traffic jungle crisis.
Ad-hoc operations, be they to do with the transport crisis, or vending in the CBD will not cut it, as we believe these are heavy-handed, archaic law enforcement mechanisms that have no place in a modern society.
