FOR years, Zimbabwe’s roads have functioned less as public infrastructure and more as open-air cash machines for corrupt police officers.
Roadblocks became platforms of extortion, with police officers routinely extracting bribes to allow the passage of unroadworthy vehicles or those without requisite documentation.
Law enforcement was reduced to a transactional exercise.
Bogus police officers joined the bandwagon on the realisation that motorists had been conditioned to pay or suffer punishment.
Traffic policing evolved into a lucrative enterprise where “freedom” was sold to desperate motorists and commercial vehicle drivers.
Public complaints mounted as roadblocks multiplied, frustrating motorists and commuters forced to endure endless delays.
Ironically, this persisted despite police claims that, according to policy, no roadblocks should be within a 30-50 kilometre radius of each policing area, whether urban or rural. Reality told a different story. Some roadblocks appeared within a kilometre of each other, creating a siege atmosphere on major highways and urban routes.
These checkpoints became chokepoints for harassment, intimidation and extortion, eroding public confidence in law enforcement and normalising corruption as the cost of mobility.
Against this backdrop, motorists’ long-standing prayers may finally be answered with the Zimbabwe Republic Police’s unveiling of far-reaching reforms, including the rollout of body-worn cameras, drones and smart traffic enforcement technology.
For drivers accustomed to arbitrary policing, the prospect of recorded encounters introduces something unfamiliar: fairness. Cameras mean interactions will no longer depend solely on the unchecked discretion of individual officers.
Those who once operated as a law unto themselves — inventing charges, harassing citizens or threatening to impound vehicles and extract bribes — will now be subject to scrutiny.
For desperate motorists, this technology promises protection from officers notorious for “cooking up” offences to squeeze money. Facilitation fees designed to “oil the wheels of bureaucracy” become far harder to demand when every word and gesture is preserved as evidence.
Crucially, body-worn cameras also protect honest officers from false accusations, vexatious complaints and blanket public mistrust. In an institution badly tainted by misconduct, transparency offers a rare opportunity to separate professionalism from abuse.
Beyond roadblocks, the deployment of speed cameras and drones signals a critical shift in philosophy — from selective, negotiable enforcement to systematic law enforcement. Reckless driving has claimed thousands of lives on Zimbabwe’s roads, yet enforcement has often been inconsistent or absent. There were cases of serious offences being settled on the roadside through negotiation rather than prosecution.
Automated systems remove that discretion as they profile motorists impartially, record violations accurately and drastically reduce opportunities for corruption.
In doing so, they refocus traffic policing on its primary purpose: saving lives.
Yet technology alone cannot fix a deeply embedded cultural problem.
Cameras may expose misconduct, but only leadership can punish it. Without political will and institutional courage, recorded abuses will simply accumulate without consequence.
Clear, enforceable rules must govern who accesses footage, how long it is stored and how it may be used. Independent oversight is essential to prevent internal cover-ups and firm, visible consequences must follow proven misconduct.
Without these safeguards, body-worn cameras risk becoming little more than just gadgets.
Police Commissioner-General Stephen Mutamba’s insistence on visible name tags and compulsory body cameras is, on paper, a welcome signal of seriousness. But history urges caution. The real test lies in implementation and consistency.
Will cameras be worn at all times or conveniently switched off during “problematic” encounters? Will footage be protected from tampering or selective deletion? Will senior officers — not just junior constables — face consequences when wrongdoing is captured on
tape?
At a time when the nation yearns for renewal, restoring trust in law enforcement would be a powerful place to begin. A police service that serves, not preys on the public, signals that Zimbabwe is ready to turn the page and rebuild confidence in the institutions meant to protect its people.