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The blitz will also see passengers caught being dropped or picked up at undesignated points being  fined.
Police will also descend on private motorists who were now driving kombi operators out of business by picking and dropping passengers in the central business district  (CBD).

The blitz and fining of both passengers and kombi crews was reached at a meeting between Gweru traffic police and transport operators in the city yesterday.
In an interview, police traffic co-ordinator for Midlands and Masvingo provinces Superintendent Leslie Maninge said a crisis meeting was called after police realised that kombi crews were becoming  a nuisance as they were picking   and dropping passengers in the CBD.

Supt Maninge said the kombi crews were now congesting the CBD and exposing residents to danger when fleeing from the police whenever they are seen picking or dropping passengers at undesignated areas.
“Most of these kombi crews are             so daring that they go on and drive away speeding whenever the police pounce on them. We realised that   this poses danger and decided to convene a meeting with the operators,” he said.

Supt Maninge said police  would starting tomorrow launch   a blitz, which would also see passengers found being picked  in the CBD by pirate taxis and kombis being charged and fined.
“The meeting was to issue          warning shots and from now we are going to arrest and fine the kombi crews who would have being found committing the offence. Passengers who would have been caught being picked or dropped at an undesignated area will also be fined as we seek to bring back normalcy in the city,”              he said.

Gweru Transport Operators Association chairman Mr Reason Chinheko, who confirmed the meeting with police, said kombi crews             were forced to pick up passengers in the CBD because of fierce competition they were receiving from unregistered private motorists.

He said they have agreed in the meeting that police would do their best to drive away private motorists who he said were ambushing passengers in the CBD pushing them out of business.

“The problem we are facing is  that we are being pushed out of business by private motorists who  are pirating in all routes picking and dropping passengers in the            CBD. This has forced us to abandon the commuter omnibus termini to look for clients in the CBD. We have, however, agreed with the police that they would do their job to arrest the situation and we hope everything will get back to normal,” said Mr Chinheko.

He said they agreed to cooperate with the police and desist from picking and dropping passengers within the CBD.
Kombi crews plying several routes in Gweru recently reduced fares from R5 to R2 per trip in a desperate bid to push private motorists out of business.