Zimbabwe to review legislation on importation of vehicles

The Zimbabwe government is reviewing its current position to ban the importation of vehicles whose year of manufacture from the country of origin is more than five years.

The Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communications, Mr Nicholas Goche, told this paper in an exclusive interview that his ministry was "reviewing certain aspects of Statutory Instrument (S.I.) 154".
Last year in September, Government gazetted S.I. 154 banning the use of left-hand-drive vehicles among other measures.

In the same vein, Minister Goche revealed that Government has also taken a position not to ban the use of 15-seater kombis on the country's roads as had been announced earlier.
The move to ban vehicles that are more than five years old had sparked an outcry from many Zimbabweans who felt that this law would make the affordability of vehicles in this country a preserve for the well-to-do in society.

Presently, Zimbabweans have been relying heavily on second-hand car imports from Japan, England, Singapore and the United States of America, to some extent.
These vehicles are somehow affordable, as they are cheaper than vehicles less than five years old. Zimbabwe has been facing a challenge of lack of vehicle financing due to liquidity in the market.

Minister Goche, however, added that the move to ban vehicles more than five years old was not in any way going to affect Government's revenue which it was receiving from the importation of second-hand vehicles.

He said Government would continue receiving revenues through vehicle import duties, taxes and registration fees as vehicles of less than five years old will pay even more in such duties than the older ones.
"However, the incoming law should be viewed positively in light of its envisaged contribution to road safety as well as its provision standards as regards value addition of the imports to the economy."

"With respect to affordability and availability of vehicles, we will look forward to the responsiveness of the industries to this development where the economy moves towards the strengthening of the vehicle manufacturing and assembling sector.
"As we move towards strengthening these sectors, in the process we will also move towards employment creation, indigenisation of the sector and a shift from a consumptive economy to a productive economy," explained Minister Goche.

Minister Goche added that to this end, the financial services sector should also support this development to ban vehicles more than five years old and respond by opening opportunities to finance vehicle-purchasing schemes.

"For now we are reviewing that Statutory Instrument and will announce the latest developments with regards to that soon," he said.
However, the transport minister says that Government will not be banning 15-seater commuter omnibuses from plying the country's roads.

He said there is no intention on the part of Government to outright ban the kombis in the near future.
"This is in cognisance of the role that they currently play in the passenger transport business.

"However, it is my ministry's intermediate to long-term plan to adopt a policy shift from small passenger carriers towards a medium and mass passenger carriers, as it has been proved that the medium to mass passenger carriers are not only an efficient, economic mode of passenger transport but also serve a lot in the decongestion of the road traffic environment," explained Minister Goche.