Police officers are not allowed to confiscate driver’s licences – Minister

By CATHERINE NYIRENDA –
HOME Affairs Minister Davis Mwila has said traffic police officers are not allowed to confiscate driver’s licences from motorists who allegedly commit traffic offences.

Mr Mwila said traffic police officers are instead supposed to take note of vehicle number plate of a motorist who commits a traffic offence or abrogate traffic safety and request him to pay for the offence at a police station.
Mr Mwila said this in Parliament recently in response to a supplementary question raised by United Party for National Development (UPND), Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament (MP) Garry Nkombo who wanted to know if it was allowed for traffic police officers to confiscate such important documents from motorists when they mount roadblocks.
“It’s not allowed to confiscate drivers licences from motorists who commit an offence, all that the police officers are supposed to do, is just take down a number plate of the vehicle and ask them to report to police for payment of the fine,” he said.
Mr Mwila clarified to the House that roadblocks on selected roads would continue as they were necessary for security and road safety reasons.
Mr Mwila was responding to a supplementary question asked by UPND Monze Central MP Jack Mwiimbu who wanted the minister to clarify his earlier statement to ban roadblocks in the country.

Earlier, Mr Mwila told the House that traffic check points were necessary to increase compliance and enforce traffic regulations.
He was responding to Patriotic Front (PF) Nchelenge MP Raymond Mpundu who wanted to know why there were too many road blocks and check points in Zambia.
Mr Mwila also told the House that Zambia currently has 241 illegal immigrants remanded in various prisons as of December 2014 and that 361 were held for more than six months.
He said this in response to MMD Lumezi MP Isaac Banda who wanted to know how many illegal immigrants were being held in Zambian Prisons by December 2014 and how many were held for more than six months.
Mr Banda also wanted to know when the suspects who were involved in hacking their opponents with machetes along the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport road which led to the death of one person on November 7, 2013 will be taken to court.
Mr Mwila said the suspects were released on November 27, 2013 after two postmortems were conducted which revealed that they died of natural causes.