Transport and Communications Minister Nicholas Goche has urged people to register their vehicles as there will be no further extension of the June 30 motor vehicle registration deadline.
This comes at a time a Harare motorist has filed an urgent application at the High Court seeking to compel police and Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (Zinara) to allow unlicensed vehicles on the road without penalty until the given deadline citing Zinara, Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri, Goche and Harare City Council as respondents.
The lawsuit was filed in Harare last week and will be heard before Justice Andrew Mutema today. Addressing a press conference in Harare yesterday, Goche said he was dismayed that motorists applying for the new licence discs had decreased following the extension of the deadline from May 31.
“We don’t want to wait and cause other queues and force extensions. I don’t think government can operate that way otherwise there will be no government. We can’t work that way and we can’t have counter strategies. When people say why police are involved, that’s a dangerous attitude,” Goche said.
“I don’t think we will extend, people must licence their vehicles now. If there are no queues now that’s not a good thing.”
Goche said last week Cabinet tasked him to restore “normalcy” by acting on the chaotic situations at Zinara and Zimpost offices. “I was told there was need to extend because of the chaotic situation so that there is no rush and for people to go in a relaxed manner, but then nobody was reporting at the licensing offices. We fear if it goes like this, if month-end comes, we will have another request coming,” Goche said.
Zinara chief executive officer Frank Chitukutuku said the authority had acquired machines that will detect fake licence discs. He said some fake discs have already been handed over to the police.
“We don’t have a quantum of how many (fake disks) but it won’t be a problem because the police will do their job. The scanners will tell whether this is fake or not,” he said.
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Chitukutuku said there were around 250 000 registered cars in Harare out of an estimated total of between 300 000 and 400 000 vehicles. As first reported in NewsDay last week, police have refused to arrest motorists without the new discs until the deadline expires.
