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Second-hand light importers of vehicles over 10-years-old now have up to end of May to clear their cars without requiring permits from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to allow all cars bought before the new regulations to be cleared before the regulations are strictly applied.
Following the gazetting of Statutory Instrument 89 of 2021 on April 2 all second-hand vehicles 10-years-old or over, except a limited range of heavy commercial vehicles, need individual import licences issued by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
This comes at a time when government had banned the import of second hand vehicles to bring sanity to our roads and also ensure safety.The Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe (TSCZ) Acting Operations Director Mr Ernest Muchena contacted for comment said when these vehicles come and are meant to be on the road to be used for either business or personal use then”get route authority from Ministry of Transport with Certificate of fitness and driver must have retest at Vehicle Inspection Department including defensive driving and medicals or private hire permit”
Meanwhile In a statement issued last week, Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza said her ministry, in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), came up with an administrative transitional arrangement to facilitate the clearance and speedy processing of these vehicles.
This administrative arrangement will apply from 22 April 2021 to 31st of May 2021, by which date all vehicles bought on or before 2 April 2021, should have been imported into the country.
In a recent interview with TechMag TV, the Acting Director Operations of the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe mentioned on the need to
”have passenger liability operators license first and foremost…” Mr Muchena said ”..red and white for business if its yellow they can impound if using for business…” referring to most of these second hand vehicles which are normally used for transport in the country.
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