admin
Long queues have since Thursday been witnessed at the different centres processing the renewals in both Bulawayo and Harare.
Motorists have been spending long hours in queues waiting for their turn to be served.
The Zinara head (administration and human resources) Mr Precious Murove conceded that they had been facing challenges with their system which he said was down last Thursday.
He said as a result few motorists were served on Thursday.
“On Thursday we managed to process 9 000 licences because of the problem. Under normal circumstances, we do between 20 000 and 25 000 licences a day,” said Mr Murove.
Zinara in a bid to speed up the renewal of licences as well as bring the service closer to the people, has engaged CBZ Bank, ZABG Bank, Met Bank and Zimpost as agents through which motorists can buy or renew licences.
Zinara according to Mr Murove would not penalise motorists for failing to renew their licences until the expiry of the 30-day grace period provided for in the Roads Act.
He however, said the police will during the same period arrest motorists for using vehicles with expired licences. It has become the norm since Zinara introduced the new vehicle licences that each time the renewal of these licences is due, there is chaos at its offices and the agents due to congestion.
Zinara has on several occasions given excuses for failing to cope with demand for renewal of licences.
What boggles the mind is that despite the fact that Zinara is aware of when the bulk of the licences are due for renewal, it is always found wanting.
Motorists are made to spend long hours in queues instead of spending this quality time doing productive work just because of Zinara’s system which is either down or is too slow.
The 30-day grace period is not helpful to motorists who during the period can be arrested and fined by the police for driving vehicles with expired licences.
What should just be done is for Zinara to put in place a system that can cope with demand for renewal of licences.
We have already stated that Zinara and its agents are aware of the busy days after the end of each quarter and should therefore deploy additional manpower to cope with increased demand.
We want a situation whereby motorists just spend a few minutes to have their licences renewed.
There is no justification for spending hours in queues given the fact that the system has been computerised.
We agree with Mr Murove that motorists should not wait until the last day of the expiry of the licences to renew the licences but what we should appreciate is that most people including motorists are finding it difficult to meet demands of competing priorities.
It is because of this reality that most motorists will try to squeeze in the provision for a vehicle licence at the very last day when it is due to expire.
It is our belief that with adequate manpower and an efficient system, the high demand for licences should be addressed within the first three days of the expiry of the licences.
We want to once again implore Zinara to work on improving its system by constantly reviewing and addressing the shortcomings so that it provides an efficient service.
Motorists should not dread to renew their licences as is the case now because of the long hours one spends in the queue.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter