Motorists defy call

Freeman Razemba Crime Reporter
About 29 000 motorists out of 208 000 with unlicensed vehicles have so far complied with the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration’s call to obtain licences by the end of this month. This comes after Zinara recently announced that it would de-register more than 200 000 vehicles if their owners fail to heed the call to obtain licences. Zinara director for adminstration Mr Precious Murove on Friday said they were noticing a positive response from motorists.
“The total number of unlicensed vehicles exceeding two years was 208 000 since the publication of the de-registration notice, and to date the number has reduced to 177 000.
“This shows that 29 000 vehicles have complied with the vehicle licensing. We are noticing a positive response from the motoring public, and we urge those that have not yet complied in terms of the Act to do so to avoid inconveniences once the de-registration process will be implemented through CVR,” he said.

He said Zinara, through its computerised system, now holds a database of a total of 616 307 vehicles.
Mr Murove said the vehicle licensing computerised system was introduced in May 2012 and that there had been a huge impact in terms of accountability and revenue collection due to improved controls and record keeping.

“However, over the course of time it has become clear that there is a large contingent of vehicles that only licensed once and never returned to renew the licence. The assumption is that the owners of these vehicles just wanted the new look licensed disc in the hope that it will prevent them from paying subsequent licence fees,” he said.

Mr Murove said the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development had mandated Zinara in conjunction with the Central Vehicle Registry, to remind motorists that the de-registration exercise was in terms of the Vehicle Registration and Licensing Act, Chapter 13:14.

He said the Act states that “. . . the registrar may , if according to his records a registered vehicle has not been licensed or exempted for a period exceeding two years, cancel the registration of the vehicle concerned — provided that the registrar shall not cancel the registration of a vehicle before lapse of 30 days after which he has published his intention to do so by notice in the Gazette and in a newspaper circulation . . . ”

Mr Murove said once a vehicle was de-registered, the process would be that the vehicle must acquire a Road Worthiness Certificate through the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) and that the re-registration process would attract number plate at a cost of US$160 from CVR.