Police stations across the country will now make use of POS machines that will be used for admission of guilt fines – a move that the ZRP believes will reduced cases of bribery.
The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) is said to have distributed 333 POS machines to 319 stations across the country. The number of POS machines does seem to pose a challenge in that for police officers who are deployed on roadblocks and away from the police station. These officers will still have to take cash since there aren’t enough POS machines for both stations and officers deployed on duty.
The JSC’s head of corporate communications Ms Rumbidzai Takawira said the move was also in line with the country’s shift to a digital economy;
Zimbabwe, like many countries across the world, has evolved into a more cashless economy and people now use what we term “plastic money
We have ensured all police points have a POS machine for easier transacting, moving from the system that we had before which was a bit slower. So, this is just in line with building efficiency for the transacting public when having to pay fines, like traffic fines.
After POS machines, it seems the next step will be to enable the paying of fines using mobile money (which incidentally was pronounced as banned on Friday night).
Confusion aside, the National Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said the police force and banks are working to make it possible to pay fines using mobile money;
It is a fact that mobile cellular providers (EcoCash, OneMoney and Telecash) cannot be used by the public to pay deposit fines due to the setup of the machines unless if such service providers have supplied their client with a card they can use to swipe on the POS machine.
The Judicial Service Commission is engaging banks to facilitate the use of mobile service platforms to accept deposit fines from the public. The ZRP and the Judicial Service Commission are in constant liaison to smoothen the process
Paul Nyathi
Police officers were reportedly demanding cash at roadblocks which in turn forced drivers to buy the cash on the black market. To make matters worse, instead of handing in the cash at the police station it’s alleged officers were then reselling the cash at a premium and so use of POS machines and mobile money will put an end to the anarchy.
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