Corruption on the Road
There has been a public outcry of increased levels of corruption on Zimbabwean roads. The issue has been highlighted by demonstrations lead by commuter omnibus operators who withdrew their services for the third time in less than six months in Harare. Commuter omnibus operators bemoan increased roadblocks in which traffic police are accused of demanding large sums of “bribes” which have negatively affected their daily takings. As such Transparency International Zimbabwe (TI-Z), a non-profit, non- partisan and systems oriented Zimbabwean chapter of the international movement against corruption intends to empower the commuting public with a tool that will enable them to report corrupt activities as they take place on roads. This tool should offer cost effective, if not free, ways of reporting corruption using available mobile phone technology. The tool should allow users to send messages using a phone. For example, using applications such as Mixit, Whatsapp to relay corruption related information. It is hoped that this application will, among other objectives, help in reducing corruption on our roads.
Once the application is in place it will work in conjunction with other mobile technologies available such as the SMS. However TI-Z’s experience indicates that SMS is paid for and citizens are not motivated to report corruption via this mode of communication. Also the application should guarantee anonymity to encourage witnesses to report corruption. Free inbound SMS (where users are not charged) is not yet in place in Zimbabwe due to license regulations which are said to be out by year end.
This project will target the commuting public, those with access to mobile phones. A pilot project will be implemented in Harare first and spread across various provinces in the country.
Primary beneficiaries are the commuting public and the Zimbabwean population at large.
