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Herald Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) has remodelled its traditional promotion of suspending vehicle licensing penalties during major events such as the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show to reward compliant motorists.
In a marketing communication shared on the organisations’ social media handles, ZINARA called on motorists to renew their licenses at the Zinara Showground office during the ongoing agricultural show to qualify for a mini promotion to win a single, free licensing term.
ZINARA head of corporate communications and marketing, Mrs Tsungie Manyeza, said the mini-promotion centred around the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show was a forerunner to a bigger licensing promotion for compliant motorists, whose main draw would be held in December.
Lucky winners of this promotion will qualify to win motor vehicles, among other prizes.
Some members of the motoring public had become accustomed to the suspension of vehicle licensing penalties and were now playing hide and seek with the law, waiting for the next promotion to regularise their vehicle licenses.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show that begun in Harare yesterday, Mrs Manyeza said the primary objective of the new promotion was to inculcate and inspire a culture of compliance, and to ensure value preservation of the funds collected for road maintenance and development.
“We noted that the rate of defaulters has remained high despite of the penalty waiver promotions that we used to conduct every year,” said Mrs Manyeza.
“The results showed an instant short-lived surge in renewals which would be followed by a long spell of high defaulter rate.
“This prompted us to explore a long-term and sustainable alternative model which ensures preservation of value of the funds that we collect and motivates those that have been consistent in paying their vehicle license fees.”
Mrs Manyeza said the new promotion was piloted at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair early this year, where it yielded positive and encouraging results for the organisation.
Motorists who visited the ZINARA stand at the agricultural show expressed mixed reactions over the remodelling of the licensing promotion.
“In the grand scheme of things, I think this is a progressive move that promotes compliance among motorists,” said Mr Gerald Hambe.
“Although I visited this stand expecting to enjoy the traditional penalty waiver promotion, I reckon this is a good move by ZINARA and I will certainly participate in the new promotion.”
Ms Melody Fumbe, who had also visited the ZINARA stand to clear her arrears, said: “I am obviously disappointed that I could not have my penalties waived, but as a parent, I fully understand the principle behind this new promotion and I support it.
“One cannot reward the less disciplined child and hope they will change their ways, instead of rewarding the child who is consistently doing what they are supposed to as a child.
“I have entered the competition and I hope to win.”
ZINARA is the road fund administrator whose mandate is to fix, collect and disburse road user fees in Zimbabwe for the purposes of road infrastructure maintenance and development.
Online Reporter