Red Light

To be stopped by the police is something that may happen on a daily basis in Zimbabwe. The police may stop you for real or fictional reasons. The other day a friend of mine was stopped for allegedly having driven against a red light. There were no red lights to be seen, which my friend pointed out to the police officer. The police man responded, "Well, surely you must have driven against a red traffic light sometime in your life. See you in court on Monday." This example serves to highlight how engrained corruption becomes in a society where salaries of civil servants is not sufficient to meet their basic needs. The same is true for the judicial system where a lawyer may earn 140 USD per month, which is not much considering the living costs in the country. Still it is easier for the individual to support the system rather than work against it. After all a change must start with the political leaders in society.