By Adonis Byemelwa
A video clip making rounds on social media since March 20, 2025, has ignited outrage, exposing deep-seated corruption at Tanzanian weighbridges. The footage features a female truck driver, reportedly working with Simba Logistics Company Limited, recounting her ordeal at the Vigwaza weighbridge along the Zambia-Tanzania route.
In a raw and emotional account, she describes being harassed, insulted, and pressured for bribes by officials who seemed more interested in extorting her than enforcing the law. “They told me women shouldn’t be doing this job,” she says, her voice laced with frustration. “When I refused to pay, they hit me with an outrageous fine.”
Her experience has struck a nerve, not just for its blatant corruption but for the deeper discrimination women in the industry continue to face.
“They used foul language, pushed me around, and when I questioned their unfair weighing methods, they slapped me with an outrageous fine of 956,400 TZS.”
Her ordeal didn’t stop there. Despite requesting a re-weigh of her truck—carrying 32 tons of copper and a 16-bundle load—her plea was flatly denied. Calls to the cargo owner fell on deaf ears, as the weighbridge officers remained adamant that the truck was overloaded, despite differing readings at Mikumi and Mikese weigh stations.
What’s worse, there’s an obvious lack of coordination between weighbridge centers. Instead of making a simple call to Vigwaza to resolve the discrepancy, the officials let the situation escalate until the driver had no choice but to cry out on social media.
One official, identified as Charles, has been accused of leading the harassment. According to the driver, the weighbridge staff operates like a cartel, preying on truckers who refuse to grease their palms. “I don’t refuse to follow the rules,” she insists, “but the rules should be fair. Right now, they’re just a smokescreen for corruption.”
Despite multiple signs warning against bribery at weighbridges, corruption remains rampant. Transporters and truckers have long lamented the extortion at these checkpoints, where fines seem arbitrary, and refusal to pay a bribe often results in deliberate delays, exaggerated weight readings, or outright threats. The scale of the problem is staggering.
Surveys from the Tanzanian Roads Agency indicate that 25% of cargo trucks exceed the allowable weight limits, damaging roads and forcing the government to pour billions into infrastructure repairs. Yet, instead of a fair enforcement system, truckers face a network of corrupt officials using regulations as a weapon to extract money.
The lack of coordination between weighbridge centers is another glaring issue. If weighbridge officials at Mikese, Morogoro, and other stations were in communication, cases like this could be resolved without unnecessary drama.
Before a driver is unfairly fined, why not confirm readings with another station? Instead, truckers are left at the mercy of whichever officer they encounter, and if they don’t comply with demands, their journey is stalled.
The female truck driver is calling on President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan to intervene and scrutinize her ministry’s handling of weighbridge operations.
She believes Transport Minister Abdallah Ulega must answer tough questions: Why is weighbridge corruption still thriving? Why are reports of bribery ignored? And most importantly, why are women in the transport industry subjected to such blatant discrimination?
Repeated attempts to reach Vigwaza’s Police Commander for comment proved fruitless, as did efforts to get a response from Minister Ulega. The silence speaks volumes.
Not all African countries suffer from such weighbridge corruption. Rwanda, for instance, operates a highly efficient, digitized weighbridge system with minimal human interaction, drastically reducing bribery opportunities.
The entire process is automated, and weight discrepancies are resolved transparently. If Tanzania hopes to fix its broken system, it must look beyond its borders for solutions.
Ironically, back in 2021, the Tanzanian government pledged to modernize weighbridges, introducing multi-deck and weigh-in-motion systems to eliminate delays and corruption. Yet, four years later, little has changed.
Transporters still tell the same stories of extortion, long queues, and deliberate sabotage. The promises of reform seem like distant echoes, drowned out by the daily grind of truckers who know they will either pay or park.
Truckers are the backbone of trade in East Africa. They move essential goods across borders, and endure sleepless nights, bad roads, and long journeys. The last thing they need is corruption standing in their way.
The female driver’s viral video has sparked outrage, but the real test is whether authorities will act or simply wait for the noise to die down.
With growing public outcry and cases like this bringing weighbridge corruption into the limelight, one question remains: Will Tanzania act decisively to clean up its roads, or will the weighbridges remain cash cows for rogue officials? Until real action is taken, for many truck drivers, the road ahead remains filled with obstacles—both physical and corrupt.