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| Elder Charles Bota |
08:30hrs yesterday
(Saturday), the driver of the traffic car in the picture parked right in the
road to get the car washed. When I asked him why he was breaking the Law he
told me to drive around and vamoose. When I took out my iPad to take this pic
he quickly jumped in and arrogantly said, "Kulibe kwamene mungani peleke.
Palibe chamene munga chite" and he drove off! Who do I report to and who
can track this driver by the log book, date and time? I want to testify against
him.
I called RTSA and the
told me it was a Police and not a RTSA vehicle and I should report to Police.
Fortunately, I called the Director of Operations and he called me back and told
me he would be in his office just after 14:00hrs. I took my
letter of complaint detailing the date, time, car number, nature of complaint
with the picture to boot, asking that I be called when the driver was summoned,
and trusting they would track him via the log book. The Director was in a
meeting so I left the letter. Dropping off copy to Lusaka traffic chief and
Police PR person. As I left the building I saw a similar car, but it's number
plate was ZP 911B. My offender's car was 919. Obviously "the game is
afoot" as Sherlock Holmes would say!
The Police Director of
Operations traced the car as belonging to Muchinga province. The driver was
called and informed of my picture and admitted my report was true. He will now
be asked to call me to admit to me and apologize. What they do to him after is
their internal disciplinary process.
Received a call today
from the Commanding Officer Traffic for Zambia. He had my letter of complaint
on his desk. Told me they have internally charged the man. He is a lowly
constable from Muchinga traffic who was taking a
boss to Mazabuka and spent a night in PHI hence the early morning car wash in
PHI. He thought he would not get caught being from the bundus of Muchinga. He
is badly shaken. The matter is to go to Court as it is a traffic offense and I
would be required to be a witness which I don't mind. However, because the man is
now clearly badly shaken if not remorseful, and has admitted the traffic
offense as well as being arrogant about it, they are mulling over charging him
what the Court fine is likely to be and letting him pay that with the record on
his file and end there. He will write me a response letter about all this.
Finally, here is closure on this matter: The High Command came to see me with the erring officer today. I was shown the charge and an official receipt for the penalty paid of K300 for admission of guilt for the offence. The erring officer apologized profusely for his arrogance as did the Senior officer and both said that they had learned something from this. I was thanked for being upstanding. I said I was more than impressed by all this and especially the way the Command had consistently followed up justice. We shook hands. I did not ask about the accident.
