Police in Harare impounded more than 200 unregistered cars last weekend as the campaign to clamp down on growing cases of robbery and other crimes committed using unmarked vehicles escalates.
Harare provincial spokesperson Inspector James Sabau yesterday said the police were finding it difficult to track down unregistered cars after the crimes.
We impounded 240 vehicles with no number plates on Saturday and Sunday only. In Harare we are having a problem of hit-and-run accidents, robberies and wayward driving by these cars with no number plates.
We have thus seen it fit to have a crackdown on these vehicles to reduce crime, he said. The impounded vehicles were parked at various police stations in Harare and will only be released after the owners produce registration books or number plates.
Sabau said most drivers were arguing they had a grace period within which to register their vehicles, but the window period was not for motorists to drive around with the unlicensed cars.
We have seen that there is a general disregard of the rules and regulations by the citizens because amongst the 240, some have gone for more than two months without any registration and this we do not tolerate as police, Sabau said.
Drivers are hiding behind the 14-day grace period, but that grace period does not mean that one should drive around with a vehicle which has no number plates. It is for one to have time to be processing their papers which will lead to them having number plates.
He said the crackdown was set to intensify during the Easter holiday.
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We are continuing with the operation. We know people are travelling with their families and to avoid being disrupted, they should make sure that they have their cars registered because we will be impounding vehicles during this Easter, Sabau added.
