Chimene gives kombi operators 2 weeks, threatens them with arrest

During her tour of the Chikanga-Sakubva bus rank, Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs Mandi Chimene gave kombi operators in Mutare a two week ultimatum to have the necessary documentation that is needed for them to operate public vehicles.

Chimene said that she will also instruct the police not to issue tickets but to arrest non-compliant Kombi operators. Said Chimene:

No kombi should be allowed to ply any route in Mutare if it is not properly registered. All kombis should be licensed, have a VID fitness certificate and a police clearance certificate on fitness and should have billboards bearing their destinations to make it easy for commuters to identify them. In fact, there should be different identification colour bands on kombis to represent the various destinations to which they go. Drivers to those vehicles and their conductors should also have uniforms in those colours to make it easy for people to spot the kombis to their homes. There should be no touts jostling and harassing passengers. Do you know that it is an offence just to touch a person or wrestle their luggage, forcing them to board your kombi? The police will not issue tickets – tickets merely demonstrate your admission of guilt, so I will order them to imprison offenders and not issue tickets. There is no bus terminus near this robot by the swimming pool just outside Sakubva where I see kombis blocking the road picking and dropping passengers — from now onwards, anyone seen doing that faces a life ban from driving a public vehicle in Mutare, while the vehicle that he will be using will also be impounded.

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