Online Reporter
Daniel Chigunwe
Interview
The Government has rolled out operation “No to Mushikashika and Lawlessness on the Roads”, meant to tame traffic lawlessness on urban roads. Herald Correspondent, Daniel Chigunwe (DC) speaks to Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe (KK) about this and other issues.
DC: Would you briefly unpack the nature of the operation?
KK: Let me start with the current status quo. As a ministry, we are not happy with a number of things in terms of law enforcement. I am not saying the police are not doing their work, they are doing their best, we can safely say there is peace and tranquillity in the country.
But we cannot probably say the same with the traffic conditions, to be perfectly honest there is a bit of lawlessness in terms of our traffic management; there is an area we believe we should improve.
Our focus will start there as a first step in restoring order in the country. There is a lot that is going on and we have a had a few crime incidents that we feel could be avoided.
When it comes to police we have various departments which include the Crime Management Unit, Forensic and Laboratory Management system among others, but for 2025 our focus is on smart traffic policing – Electronic Traffic Management System.
Once we have the electronic traffic management system, it eases the fight against crime, all armed robbers commit crime using cars. The system will see you at all given points and because of the facial recognition the system will know who is driving that car. Come June you will start seeing the change. It is a complex project, but we have everything in place to get it done.
His Excellency, President Mnangagwa has directed that he wants it done and so we will get it done this 2025.
DC: How effective has this operation been in taming lawlessness so far?
KK: We have started implementing the smart policing strategy, I am a proponent of technology. As human beings, we often face numerous challenges, including issues like corruption and incompetence. When it comes to policing we need a system that does not see colour, race, political affiliation, no super heroes, no superior classes of the country.
There is a lot happening in the police in terms of computerisation of systems. For 2025, our target is on deploying the Electronic Traffic Management System or Smart Transport Management System. This year is the year for traffic management system. This is critical in a lot of ways. Once we deploy this system, it will ensure we have cameras in strategic places in different forms. Will have enforcement bars installed on vehicles. So vehicles will be moving command centres.
The system will be able to detect if a car is licensed, insured or not. Once we bring electronic surveillance on our roads, it goes a long way because it is like Big Brother Africa where you have nowhere to hide.
DC: Minister, in 2024 we witnessed worrying cases of road traffic accidents, what are some of the measures that your ministry and stakeholders have taken to reduce the loss of lives through road carnages?
KK: The measures that were undertaken last year were mainly awareness, increased police visibility through roadblocks and collaboration with stakeholders like the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) to make sure vehicles are fit for the road. That assisted a lot, but not to our satisfaction, but we did the most though our major solutions are in technology.
We are reviewing the fines to be deterrent enough, we recommended the increase in fines of course this involves the judiciary and finance. The smart traffic policing will go a long way to make sure our roads are safe. We cannot keep on losing lives on the road, one life lost is too many.
Our people are the ones who complain about lawlessness, but then the moment we start dealing with the issues they then cry foul. So my appeal to the people of Zimbabwe is please allow us to do work. If you want a clean a country allows us to work, comply.
The police will be everywhere and if people want the country to have sanity lets comply. You can cry loud but the law will be enforced.
Please let us assist by building our country, in a manner that will allow investments to come, we have Vision 2030 and it is not achievable if we have lawlessness. We want to maintain order, let us work with the police.
DC: In 2024 we witnessed the unrolling of e-Gates at the RGM Airport, can you briefly takes us through this milestone achievement.
KK: The integrated solution has many pillars which include the civil registry, immigration, and we are dealing with the critical ones which when we implement the system the change will be there to see. Civil service we already started deploying the Zim Population Registry System, which saw the production of e-passports which now link to the Online Border Management System, which then saw the installation of the e-Gates.
We have the e-gates at Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Victoria Falls airport and eventually we will install these at all ports including for travellers using roads. In 2024 we also opened a number of e-passport offices in the country, we have even gone beyond our borders to include Johannesburg.
This year we are targeting Cape Town and the United Kingdom so that we bring the services at the doorstep of those in diaspora. If we can do that within our prescribed period of time we may also go to other countries like Australia and United States.
DC: Minister you are also Zanu PF chairman for Mashonaland Central province, what programmes, agendas and expectations do you have for 2025?
KK: Politics is economics and what we have agreed to focus on socio-economic development we cannot be politicking all times.
The reason we talk about politics is to vote for leadership there after we focus on economic development. Zanu PF Mashonaland Central province we are known for our patriotism and our loyalty to the party, we are a one party province if we are to put it that way. Mash Central is 100 percent behind President Mnangagwa.
We believe ‘Province inovakwa nevene vayo’ and elected leaders must focus on development. We are blessed with many resources which we must convert towards empowering our people.
We have youth, women and war vets looking up to us. We want to see farming getting into another level especially now that the President has introduced the new land tenure system which is a game changer.
It has been the missing link, farmers will now have a secure tenure they can now access loans and develop their farms. This will go a long way in capacitating farmers to be productive.
Some people are being misled that the land reform is being reversed, the President is clear and on record that the land reform is not reversible. Farming requires resources and the idea of Government financing is not sustainable.
We need to be food secure first as a country hence let us run farming as a business. With a bankable secure tenure, we can do it. The secure land tenure is constitutional.
DC: What are your last words to the nation?
KK: Let me just emphasise the issue of compliance, we all want a Zimbabwe which is conducive for business and investment growth. This can only happen when we have law and order in the country. Our focus for this 2025 is to deal with traffic menace, ending lawlessness on the roads is our critical duty. Citizens need to comply with the law and unite in building our country brick by brick.
