ZIMBABWE Republic Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga has passed the buck on Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Hon. Felix Mhona whom he said is the authority responsible for the administration of the law which law enforcements agents were relying upon to restrict the movement of motorists for allegedly failing to display permanent registration number plates.
Source: Matanga passes buck to Mhona over restriction of movement of motorists – The Zimbabwean
Godwin Matanga
Matanga disclosed this in a response to a letter written to him by
Paidamoyo Saurombe of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, who had
demanded that ZRP should immediately allow access to motorists who had
paid for the acquisition of permanent registration number plates at
Central Vehicle Registry (CVR) but had not yet been issued to them
while CVR and the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural
Development attend to sorting out the challenges they were facing.
In his letter, Saurombe had protested that it was grossly unreasonable
for ZRP officers to curtail the movement of motorists who have paid
for permanent registration number plates and that the motoring public
was being needlessly harassed and inconvenienced at numerous police
checkpoints.
The human rights lawyer told Matanga that it was unfortunate for ZRP
to label everyone without permanent registration number plates as
being criminal elements committing gross acts such as armed robbery,
kidnapping, unlawful entry as well as hit and run traffic accidents in
Zimbabwe.
The ZRP dragnet operation which commenced in January 2022, Saurombe
said, is arbitrary without any room for discretion and was hindering
motorists’ rights to movement as well as being unreasonable and could
not be justified in a democratic society.
In response, Matanga faulted Hon. Mhona and told Saurombe that the
Police Service is a creature of the Constitution which draws its
functions from the supreme law of the land.
Matanga said Hon. Mhona is the one responsible for the administration
of the Vehicle Registration and Licensing Act, which ZRP had
purportedly been relying upon in conducting the operation to impound
vehicles, which human rights lawyers had argued does not empower law
enforcement agents to impound motorists’ vehicles and hence they
cannot grant to themselves powers which they are not vested with at
law.
The ZRP Commissioner-General told Saurombe to direct some motorists
who paid for permanent registration number plates and can show their
proof of payment documentation to Hon. Mhona, whom he said should be
able to address such issues.