By Anna Chibamu
OVER 9000 illegal transport operators, popularly known as “mushika-shika”, have been arrested and fined since the beginning of the year, a government official has reported.
Home Affairs Permanent Secretary Ambassador Tayerera Faranisi told a Transport Parliamentary Portfolio committee last week that since January this year, 9,289 mushika-shika operators were arrested and fined.
“There is an ongoing operation targeting mushika-shika operators.
“As of the latest update, 9,289 mushika-shika operators have been nabbed and fined since January 01, 2025,” Faranisi said.
Responding to questions relating to the chaos being caused by these illegal transport operators and finding solutions to end road carnage, Committee members touched on challenges resulting from the mushika-shika presence on the country’s roads.
Police Deputy Commissioner General (DCG) Operations Leny Ncube accused the public vehicle operators of being corrupt.
“There is the issue where it appears people are now budgeting to deal with our police officers.
“Without trying to defend our members, we have better police officers. We also have corrupt members of the community.
“We cannot run away from that as the bus crew people are making money from the bus operators using the system to pay the police,” Ncube told this committee.
“It is just a corrupt system. Unless you are talking of a vehicle owner who is coming forth and saying, I was a victim of this, corruption is all over.
“Everyone is surviving through this corruption. Bus crews, you name them, they are surviving through the money. They report they were paid police officers.
Ncube explained that there was a need for the whole country to vigorously campaign against corruption.
“Corruption is running in our nerves because police cannot corrupt themselves alone. Someone is giving them money.
“Someone is enticing them because the person doesn’t want to pay the necessary dues to the government. Maybe you define it as $20, but the person is not willing to pay that $20. And it’s enticing the police officer to pay $30.
“So it’s corruption across the world. We cannot run away from that because we are guilty of charging our members sometimes.”