avoid too many and unnecessary roadblocks that inconvenience motorists. He was giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs on Monday. \u201cThey are a necessity, otherwise there would be carnage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been complaints on the number of roadblocks. We have listened.\u201d
\nThe committee is chaired by Mount Darwin East MP Cde Dickson Mafios (Zanu-PF).
\nLegislators also wanted to know what Government was doing to curb corruption involving traffic police officers.<\/p>\n
In his response, Mr Matshiya said equipping police with requisite gadgets will go a long way in reducing police presence on the roads.
\nPolice, he said, must be physically present in most cases, something other countries like South Africa have moved away from as their system is computerised.
\nMr Matshiya said the police needed at least 15 000 vehicles to provide optimal service.<\/p>\n
He said improving their conditions of service was also one way of containing corruption. Asked to comment on the heavy-handedness of some police officers who smashed windscreens of commuter omnibuses, Mr Matshiya said some drivers did not take heed of police instructions at roadblocks.
\n\u201cOne incident that I have witnessed was when a motorist was asked to stop, but he didn\u2019t care an iota, he just flashed and proceeded. What do you expect the police to do?\u201d said Mr Matshiya.<\/p>\n
He said police smashed windscreens of kombis because the drivers would have defied instructions to stop.
\n\u201cIf one resists arrest, the police are empowered to use appropriate minimum force, but, you see, just like in a fight, kana munhu akakurirwa akarohwa chematsenganzungu, he complains,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Matshiya denied reports that roadblocks were prevalent because police officers are given targets in terms of revenue they should collect in fines.
\n\u201cI am not aware of police officers who have been punished for failing to meet any targets,\u201d he said.
\nOn corruption, Officer Commanding Traffic Senior Assistant Commissioner Martin Chari said when traffic police officers are deployed, details of how much money they have and their phones are recorded and they will be searched on return from the roadblocks.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur instruction to them is that when they stop a car, they should arrest and their conversation should be heard by everyone in the car,\u201d he said.
\nSnr Asst Comm Chari was responding to comments from legislators that conductors of commuter omnibuses disembark when stopped and go to a police officer who will be a distance from the rest where the bribe is believed to take place, away from the public.<\/p>\n
He said while they have endeavoured that every police officer should have a baton stick, in other countries baton sticks have been substituted by guns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
avoid too many and unnecessary roadblocks that inconvenience motorists. He was giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs on Monday. \u201cThey are a necessity, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7315"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7318,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7315\/revisions\/7318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.testdomain2023.gov.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}