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New Zim clean-up blitz: 67 held
06/06/2006 13:18 - (SA)
Harare - Sixty-seven touts have appeared in court in Zimbabwe as police push on with their bid to "clean up" the streets of the capital, say reports.
Touts, also known as rank marshals, operated at busy bus stations in and around Harare.
They organised bus queues, accepted "fees" from those wanting to jump the queues and also charge bus drivers for finding passengers.
Their arrest followed complaints in the state-run media last week that touts were terrorising commuters.
It was reported that 57 of the group were handed a 500 000-Zimbabwe-dollar ($5) fine. The reports said: "The touts will spend five days in prison if they fail to pay the fine."
The rounding-up of the touts was expected to be welcomed by many in Harare, but other aspects of President Robert Mugabe's urban "clean-up" campaigns had been more controversial.
Touts were cleared from the streets during last year's infamous Operation Restore Order, which also saw the demolition of thousands of shacks and backyard cottages and provoked criticism from the United Nations.
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