Govt issues ultimatum on RBZ-donated vehicles

THE Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development has expressed concern over unregistered vehicles donated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to various institutions and individuals, saying most of them were still unregistered and posed challenges at tollgates.

Transport minister Obert Mpofu said all unregistered vehicles should be regularised within the next 30 days, failing which they would be impounded by law enforcement agencies.

In 2010, senior RBZ officials were accused of grabbing dozens of buses, part of a huge fleet bought by the central bank in 2008.

The buses, 35-seater Mazda SWARAJ vehicles, some of which had been given out to Zanu-PF as part of the central bank's contribution to the party's election campaign in 2008, were auctioned off at Gift Investments Company after the RBZ failed to pay the supplier Advance Seed of South Africa.