guest column:Learnmore Zuze
Zimbabwe is increasingly becoming a country where the absurd is becoming the norm. The cliché of normalising the abnormal is becoming the hallmark of Zimbabwean life. The level of deterioration in economic standards and service delivery is simply unprecedented.
Zimbabwe faced one of its worst crises around 2008 at the height of the late former President Robert Mugabe’s mindless fights against the United States and the United Kingdom. Shops virtually had nothing at all.
Fuel shortages were the order of the day and electricity was simply unavailable. Mugabe provided no known solution, but to clutch onto the straw of sanctions.
It would appear the ills of 2008 have resurfaced although in a different form. Zimbabwe has been dogged by economic misfortunes ever since the coming into office of President Emmerson Mangagwa.
It began with some slight fuel increase and today the catastrophe is indescribable. No one had seen it coming but it can matter-of-factly be said that Zimbabwe under Mugabe was better than the present-day Zimbabwe. It’s undeniable.
It must be borne in mind that despite the humongous tragedies that hit Zimbabwe during Mugabe’s reign, no time in the history was there such a degrading national problem such as we see today: failure to provide number plates for vehicles. It would also appear that Zimbabweans have grown weary of the crisis in their country that they do not bother anymore. Whatever reasons have been proffered to justify the failure to provide the vehicle number plates is, in my view, unacceptable.
The citizenry must refuse to listen to, let alone accept such a reason. Unavailability of something as basic as number plates should simply be an anathema in any nation.
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The conscience of the leadership of this country should be put on trial. How does that even happen in a normal country? How does business continue as usual?
The country is awash with unmarked vehicles everywhere and life goes on. What is happening in Zimbabwe makes the work of the police force almost impossible. The signature of most organised robbery crime syndicates is the use of unmarked vehicles. There is nothing more dangerous than a vehicle that cannot be identified by a number.
No the nation should never have such vehicles for whatever reason. Legally, in any other jurisdiction, we should, by now have witnessed incessant demonstrations against this fiasco.
The Central Vehicle Registry (CVR) ought to be ashamed of this. Honestly, I don’t know how they are justifying this failure; in fact, any other normal person would not take the justification.
What should kick the government into action are the consequences of allowing hundreds of cars to roam freely without number plates. Just like anywhere else, there are genuine cases of law-abiding citizens who are yet to receive number plates from CVR, but again it has opened floodgates to outright thieves whose work has been smoothened by this high degree maladministration.
It is even more astounding that the nation has not been fully furnished with information as to why the lives of people continue to be placed at risk by this administrative abortion. We have not heard anyone being summoned before Parliament to answer to this embarrassing goof in a modern nation. The weird has become normal.
The law enforcers themselves don’t seem to bother anymore as they just leave unmarked vehicles cruising the roads daily.
Technology in the form of CCTV footage has constantly proven that criminal activities heavily thrive through the use of vehicles without registration numbers.
The robberies that are being carried out across the country point to the same fact. It is the constitutional duty of a government to protect its citizens.
The citizenry must feel secure under the wings of a government but what is obtaining in Zimbabwe befuddles logic. Zimbabwe should have seen the government being sued for endangering citizens by failing to ensure that every vehicle can be traced. Now, what is worse is that the corruption that has become synonymous with the issuing of number plates is simply nauseating. It has become a privilege for one to get a passport, driver’s licence and now vehicle number plates. The country keeps hitting new lows.
First degree crimes in the mould of abductions, robberies and rape are easily being facilitated by this scourge of number plates while people watch.
The economic meltdown is real but honestly the nation can’t further expose itself to villains through something that can be addressed. Could there be someone benefiting from the crisis? How else can we conclude.
