Zinara trial to go ahead

Ms Roselyn Hanzi is seeking to compel police and Zinara to allow unlicensed vehi­cles on the road without penalty until June 30.
Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri, Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Minister Nicholas Goche and Harare City Council are cited as respondents in the case brought to court as an urgent matter.
The application seeks to bar the police from fining, arresting and impounding vehi­cles whose licence discs expired on May 31 this year until June 30, the date to which Zinara had extended.
Ms Hanzi also seeks to bar council from towing and clamping all vehicles without licence discs.
Zinara last week scrapped the June 30 extension deadline with immediate effect and gave police leeway to descend on motorists who use the roads without valid licence discs.
Motorists and lawyers criticised Zinara for the U-turn. According to legal experts, the decision was contestable because it was in breach of the Administrative Justice Act and Common Law.
Ms Hanzi, through her lawyers, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, is challenging the scrapping of the deadline.
She contends that Zinara’s decision was not in compliance with the provisions in the Constitution of Zimbabwe, the Administra­tive Justice Act and Common Law.
Ms Hanzi drives a Mazda Familia and the licence disc on her car expired on May 31.
Like other motorists, she got reprieve when Zinara announced the extension of the dead­line to June 30. Ms Hanzi said she freely drove her vehicle anticipating licensing it before the end of June.
However, she was last week arrested and fined US$10 at Rhodesville Police Station for not displaying a valid vehicle licence disc.
Ms Hanzi argues that she failed to obtain a licence disc due to the long winding queues at Zimpost offices occasioned by the introduc­tion of Zinara’s computerised licens­ing sys­tem.