The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) is on a collision course with Chiefs after it requested a list of their names and their Government allocated vehicle registration numbers for exemption processing in its system.
Chiefs are exempted from paying toll fees at toll gates and according to ZINARA, they are now abusing the privilege.
This was revealed in a letter to the Secretary for Local Government and Public Works, Zvinechimwe Churu, by Zinara acting chief executive officer, Engineer Moses Chigonyati. He said:
Traditional chiefs are exempt from paying toll fees. Previous exemptions were by way of cards that were issued and would be presented to the cashier at the tollgate who would then process free passage.
We note that this arrangement exempted the person from paying toll fees instead of the vehicle. It created loopholes where any vehicle carrying a chief would request free passage. There are likely issues of abuse where the cards were given to undeserving people or relatives to use at tollgates.
However, president of the Chiefs’ Council, Fortune Charumbira said ZINARA’s request is an insult to the chiefs.
Charumbira demanded that all vehicles belonging to chiefs, even those that they bought using private funds should be exempted from paying toll fees.