LOUIS TRICHARDT – What was meant to be a break away to peaceful Louis Trichardt, degenerated into a nightmare for Harare based Boet Schoeman and his fiancé.

Two suspicious spot fines and an attempted hijack made them wonder whether Zimbabweans were the prime targets for unscrupulous traffic officers and outright criminals.

On Thursday, April 25 Mr Schoeman and his fiancé were stopped on the N1 between Pietersburg and Louis Trichardt by a traffic officer who asked whether they had the specified red triangles in their vehicle to use in case of an emergency. Mr Schoeman replied that he had not been aware that it was a legal requirement in South Africa for a sedan vehicle to carry triangles. The officer then said that he had no option but to give them a spot fine of R500. They did not have that amount on them and promised to buy the red triangles on their arrival at Louis Trichardt. After a lot of pleading with the officer he let them go. That was however just the beginning of their ordeal.

On approaching Louis Trichardt in the 60km zone a female traffic officer stopped them and said that they had travelled 62km per hour and that she would have to give them a spot fine of R100. The Zimbabweans could not see any measuring apparatus. On their request to pay at the police station, she replied that they should rather pay her the R100 since they would be given the maximum fine at the police station which would be much more than a R100. They paid the R100 and asked for a receipt and got the reply: "We don't give receipts".

Quite upset by the strange "spot fine" policy of that particular traffic officer they slept over at family in Louis Trichardt. The worst was still to come. The next morning (April 26) their family member escorted them in her own vehicle to town since they needed some tablets at a pharmacy. They parked next to Bond's Cellular Shop in Trichardt Street while their family member parked about 40 metres away. In the short while that it took the lady to walk from her car to the Zimbabweans, two men had approached their car, one on either side of the car purporting to sell something. When they declined the man demanded R200 and the keys of their car. They shouted: "We want R200 and we want it now. Give us the keys to your car. Get out immediately! We've got weapons and we are going to shoot you!"

At that moment their Louis Trichardt cousin reached their car and heard the men threatening the Zimbabweans.

She recounts: "I saw the aggression on their faces. The one wore a pink shirt and the other one a green shirt. I asked 'What's going on here?' at which point my cousin's fiancé pushed her finger first into the face of the one man and then pointed at the other one while she said 'I command you to leave the car in the name of Jesus Christ.' I saw their eyes widen like saucers and they and they fled around the corner."

At that moment a traffic police officer pulled up behind them and asked Mr Schoeman what had happened. The officer contacted the police per radio and reported the event. The two Zimbabweans were visibly shaken and all they wanted to do was return to Harare.

"We came from Zimbabwe to take a break from all the harassment and here we met up with greater corruption and crime."

Their family member felt strongly about the fact that a warning should be put up at the Beit Bridge Border Post to warn all Zimbabweans against "spot fine" corruption.

Mr Martin Luus from the Makhado Municipality said that in the case of a spot fine the traffic officer had to fill out a J175 Police Form and on paying the fine at the police station the offender would get a J175 receipt. He also admitted that in a 60km zone there should be a 10% margin, which implies that fines should only be given from 66km per hour. Mr Willem de Beer from the same institution said that red triangles were not required for normal vehicles, but only for public and heavy duty vehicles.

Mr Johan de Necker who daily has contact with many Zimbabweans says that this is not an isolated incident. He says that spot fines for Zimbabweans occur regularly as well as the demanding of money by outright criminals.

"The other day money was demanded from two Zimbabweans who parked outside Nando's. This is a total target against Zimbabwean cars, irrespective of race. Daily I have Zimbabweans reporting of being the target of corruption and crime. This has an enormous negative impact on the tourism industry in our area," says Mr De Necker.

Mr Koos Britz, Superintendent of Traffic of the Makhado Municipality said this week that he had received the statement of the Zimbabwean complainants against the female traffic officer. According to him her case as well as a similar case concerning another local traffic officer are being investigated.