Zimpapers Logo

Finance and Economic Development Minister, Patrick Chinamasa has proposed steep increases in traffic fines. In his 2016 budget statement on Thursday, Minister Chinamasa said the increases are meant to instill more discipline on the roads so as to reduce deaths and injuries and the financial losses that are caused by road accidents. The prevailing fines, he said are not tough enough to force drivers to obey road rules and regulations.

For driving through a red traffic light, overtaking over a solid line, driving without a drivers’ licence and driving a car with a dysfunctional footbrake, a motorist pays a $20 fine, but from January next year, the same crimes will render the transgressing driver $100 poorer.

Failure to signal slowing down, stopping or turning right or left, cutting a corner, encroaching over white lines at a robot, proceeding against amber robot and abusive behaviour will attract a $20 fine from January, up from $10. For double parking, driving a vehicle that leaks fuel and oil, discarding rubbish from vehicles or spitting in or from vehicles, offenders will pay $10 up from $5.

“High levels of carnage continue to be witnessed on the country’s roads.” said Minister Chinamasa. “Most of the carnage is a result of human error arising from failure to observe road traffic regulations. Some motorists, particularly, commuter omnibus and ‘mshika-shika’ (pirate) drivers, continue to risk the lives of passengers and other motorists due to negligent driving.

“Road traffic fines are meant to be a deterrent for criminal behaviour. The current standard scale of fines which was last reviewed in 2009, does not however, promote safety and discipline on the roads. The traffic fines are generally lower than those obtaining in the region. I, therefore, propose to review the level of road traffic fines to begin from level 2 and end at level 4 of the standard scale of fines, with effect from January 1, 2016.”

Some drivers deliberately commit crimes that they deem petty, knowing that even if they are arrested, they will get away with a cheap fine. This willfulness does not apply to motoring only, but in other spheres of life. We have heard cases of people, who assault others over small disputes where dialogue could work and are fined for common assault.

Yet experience has taught us that to some extent, the mandatory jail sentences for those convicted of stock theft or rape, for example are helping in reducing the incidence of the crimes. Jail or the threat of it will obviously not eliminate rape, but just imagine if one could commit that animalistic crime and gets a fine for it? The crime would be more prevalent than now.

In recent months, Bulawayo City Council has been intensifying its enforcement of traffic by-laws. Its teams clamp double-parked cars on sight, clamp those that park on loading bays and clamp vehicles whose owners incur as few as two $5 fines for not displaying a parking disc. We are seeing more order on the roads as a driver knows that getting his car immobilised for failing to display a parking disc or navigating their vehicle properly into a parking bay will mean a greater financial loss and having to be inconvenienced seeing their car clamped when they have to rush somewhere.

We are hopeful the higher fines will contribute to greater discipline on our roads.

Over this past weekend, some motorists were unhappy saying the real motive behind the drastic increase in fines is the government’s intensifying drive to raise as much money as possible, from whatever legitimate source. Therefore, they say the higher fines are not designed to bring normalcy on roads per se, but to raise money. To some degree, that can be correct, but a person cannot commit a crime and proceed to complain that the punishment that it attracts is too harsh. Punishment for crime is meant to be harsh so as to be deterrent. Motorists must just obey the rules.

Fines are a good instrument for instilling discipline and road safety. However, they are only applied reactively. They have to be implemented concurrently with sustained awareness programmes to inculcate better motoring in the minds of drivers themselves.

Police are an integral part of the publicity endeavour, so is the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe. We appreciate that such outreaches are always there, and the TSCZ runs the defensive driving course, examines driving instructors, has traffic safety ambassadors, regularly flights advertisements on the national media on traffic safety and so on. On their part, police conduct activities to achieve the same goal. They and the TSCZ will intensify their promotional programmes as the festive season starts in the next few days.

But if drivers don’t take heed of the messages and correct their ways, the police and TSCZ will toil in vain.

Thus, while fines can serve to promote road safety, the best policing is that which occurs at a personal level and does not wait for a policeman to be enforced.