CHAOS hit the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (Zinara) licensing offices in Harare yesterday as panicking motorists stampeded to beat the July 31 licensing deadline.
BY STAFF REPORTER
Motorists, responding to social media reports that Zinara was planning a massive hike in licence fees, besieged the road authority offices. But thousands returned home empty handed after the authority’s systems packed up.
At the Harare Main Post Office, the situation was near riotous as desperate motorists refused to leave the banking hall, demanding that they be allowed to pay their licences.
A handful lucky ones managed to license their vehicles.
A NewsDay witness at the Main Post Office, who joined the queue at 9am, counted just about 30 motorists who managed to licence their vehicles, as occasional chaos disrupted the disorderly massive queue.
At around 6:30pm, Zinara personnel addressed the increasingly restless and agitated motorists, telling them that the system would hopefully be up today.
“Zinara would like to apologise for what happened today. We, however, hope to have rectified the problem by tomorrow morning,” one of the Zinara personnel announced amid loud and angry interjections from motorists.
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To calm the crowd, the motorists were given stamped pieces of papers with their vehicle numbers, which they were asked to present today when paying for their licences.
The Zinara staff also allayed fears the road authority would hike licences from $20 to $160.
