Traffic police fines' racket

| Tuesday November 4, 2008 00:00

 

Then there is the complete lack of courtesy by Batswana road users which in my opinion is not limited to taxicab and combi drivers alone as many might think. No, it is a national phenomenon which the Roads Traffic Department should have long taken up with the private driving schools, who churn out this driving menace by failing to balance skills acquisition with respect for human life.

At some meeting held at the GICC a couple of years ago, I expressed an opinion that traffic policing needed a full-fledged traffic department that is autonomous. I was happy that my proposal appeared to resonate with the outlook of some police officers attending the meeting.

Such a department would study traffic-related matters, recommend appropriate legislation to deal with the nightmare that is road traffic, devise pertinent road traffic methods, recruit and train their own staff to deal with and streamline all matters which have to handle traffic issues.

Recently in the city of Gaborone along the Nelson Mandela Road at the intersection with the Julius Nyerere Road, the traffic police appear to have adapted their traffic duties to fleecing motorists at this particular intersection.

Over some time I wondered why a pose of police parked there, with one of them standing in the middle of the road, stopping and waving some motorists to the side of the road at quick intervals

On October 9, 2008, I fell victim to this racket which I had not before understood it to be such. When I asked the police officer why I was being flagged down and ordered to the side of the road, I was shocked to learn that I had failed to stop at the traffic lights. I had noticed that the traffic light had turned amber as I turned right into Nelson Mandela Drive

I immediately remonstrated with the officer that the light had turned amber when I was already inside the intersection and I could not stop dead without obstructing traffic right there. No, I was shoved to a young officer who demanded my driver's licence, which I duly produced. She then asked me to pay P200 admission of guilt fine, which I refused to do as I was innocent and pleaded so.

Since I refused to part with my meagre tandabala monthly, I was informed I had to part with my car. Remonstrations took me nowhere and I left on foot to the Main Mall.

At Central Police Station, I lodged my complaint with the Deputy Station Commander Rre Lebalang Maniki who in spite of his unconvincing explanation about the impounding of the vehicle was courtesy personified, was unhelpful.

He, however, called the chief traffic officer at the station who explained the vehicle had to be taken the following day to the Road Traffic Testing Centre in Maru-A-Pula the following day.

Good gracious me! Whole day without the car and unsure when to get it tomorrow if at all! I impressed on the officer, I had to have the car, otherwise I would be rendered dysfunctional for the day and who knows, for the next day as well.

Reluctantly I was given the 'indulgence' of taking the car for road testing that day which it passed with flying colours except for the cracked windscreen, a loose wiper, mudflap and a slightly smooth tyre.

Anyway, the car reverted to the owner's possession and I was left with a hangover of Traffic Department way of doing things. Routinely they catch drivers for uncommitted offences and will impound vehicles without statutory authority! On October 21, 2008, it was my wife's turn. I was the passenger in her car.

At the same intersection she found herself into the intersection as the traffic light changed to amber. I told her that is precisely what happened to me. And indeed she was halted and waved to the side of the road.

She fumed and refused to listen to whatever I said. 'I'll go to court.' She protested, refusing to think of a day or days of inconvenience without her car.

As on the day of my experience, there were a number of victims who had been caught under the same circumstances and loudly protesting their innocence.

The victims agreed that this was a huge racket of raking in money from motorists by officers who neglected more important duties to do with traffic matters.

I look forward to the due process of the law in court. Who knows I might once again re-land in a dark cell of un-freedom due to capricious selective application and awful interpretation of the law!

MK Dingake

Gaborone