Please allow me a space to go public with my sentiments surrounding the drivers license control fever with the newly established City Police unit in the city of Windhoek. I mean the people dressed up in uniforms with city traffic emblems on their shoulders guarding the parking meters and constantly requesting to see people’s driving documents as if it’s a first degree murder crime. One day I went for a blood test at the Roman Catholic Hospital in the heart of the capital after which I ran into the barricade of the City Police (just 100 – 150m from the hospital, in front of the Shoprite taxi rank). I told the officer that was dealing with me that I must have forgotten the license at the hospital for it’s the only proof of identification I have since I lost my ID card. But he wouldn’t listen to me, even though the hospital is just a few blocks away and I could’ve fetched it quickly. Instead, I got N$300.00 poorer. Discretionless prototypes that aren’t worth reasoning with … Just doing their job up to the letter. No warnings, you just go straight into the book. Another day I went to fetch my sister’s car at a garage – forgot yet again my license in my company vehicle and I end up last against the ‘City Sharks’. This time around I just give them the benefit of the doubt. Even an infant couldn’t have believed me on this one I know. Trust me…you will drive without your license because of one or the other unforeseen circumstance or just simply because of a human era, and that’s a fact. I thought about the safety belt and I justify the incrimination of not having one on. Use of a mobile (if not hands free) while driving is also dangerous and probably twice as much fatal. Drunk and reckless driving is of the deadliest offences one could be guilty of and doesn’t even warrant any kind of explanation whatsoever, I personally believe…But driving without your driving license at least within the boundaries of your residential city? Yet again, my intellect failed me to comprehend the logic of the act in the Namibian context and operations. I would never accept trash as an answer such as: – It’s a common practice. It happens all over the world. – To root out pirate drivers. – To maintain law and order extra… Al these reasons would be just pointless, stupid and highly unprecedented. No service or gain for the taxpayer nor is it of any kind of benefit to the road user whatsoever. This is just action to collect more revenue for the state/city on the expense of the already monthly enslaved residents with their bills. I could never think of somebody arrested for illegal driving unless being a taxi driver or after involvement in an accident. Nor can I remember any imprisonment of a pirate driver after receipt of a traffic fine. The fine in this regard remains zero, unless we embark upon some other alternatives that can regulate and govern this matter in a more affective manner. A rule that would downsize bogus and in the same time boost the safety of the other road users as well, because anybody can pay a fine. Just to map out the way; why don’t they give a timeframe to the perpetrators in this particular regard (as it was in the past) during which they can prove their legitimacy by producing the original document to the relevant authorities and be exempted from the unfairness of the punishment. This way, they can easily separate fake from the genuine. Three hundred bucks (N$ 300.00) is nothing compared to the risk posed by the unlawful drivers to the innocent and yet again, lot of money to the one who doesn’t circumstantially have his license with him by the time of the questioning. Nado Canniggia