Vehicle registration exposes Goche

Comment & Analysis
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE THE scrapping of the vehicle registration extension deadline, barely a week after the reprieve, has exposed the confusion, indecisiveness and general inefficiency that has rocked the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development, for the past few years.

Analysts said it was little wonder Nicholas Goche, who heads the ministry, was widely regarded as one of the ministers in the inclusive government who have dismally failed to deliver.

A fortnight ago, his ministry, through the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara), extended the vehicle registration by one month, only to reverse the decision a few days later, plunging the transport sector into chaos.

This was despite the fact that long and snaking queues, moving literally at a snail’s pace, were still evident at post offices as motorists jostled to register their vehicles. Angry motorists last week castigated Goche for being indecisive and failing to professionally run parastatals under his ministry, most of which have been reduced to empty shells.

“This sudden u-turn by Zinara clearly shows confusion and indecisiveness bordering on wanting to extort money from motorists,” said one motorist, Richard Chingore. From June 30, motorists would be required to fork out US$45, up from US$20 for vehicle registration.

“There is definitely something wrong with the Ministry of Transport. first it was change of number plates, which we hear would soon be changed again, then came the looting of tollgate fees and now there is chaos in vehicle registration,” said Chingore.

The MDC-T has also expressed concern over the scrapping of the deadline considering that the country’s biggest post offices were only able to issue less than 100 discs per day.

“Zinara should be organised and efficient and not punish the people of Zimbabwe for its inefficiencies,” said the MDC-T in a statement. It said the registration forms must be available online to enable motorists to register on the internet to save time.

The party urged Goche to ensure that the revenue collected from the motorists was properly accounted for to facilitate national development. Analysts said the indecisiveness shown by Zinara mirrored the general policy inconsistence, mismanagement, corruption and incompetence of entities under the Ministry of Transport.

The analysts said almost three years after the erection of tollgates, which bring in millions of dollars every month, the country’s roads still have nothing to show for it.From August 2009 to April this year, Zinara collected a whopping US$57 million from tollgates, of which about US$47 million was disbursed for road network maintenance.

In spite of this, the dualisation and rehabilitation of the Harare-Masvingo road, Harare-Gweru road and other roads has not moved an inch. Built as temporary structures, the tollgate structures have remained the same.

Engineers have already condemned the structures as a health hazard to motorists, workers and a mockery to engineering. There is no facility to record the number of cars passing through; the structures are too narrow for some vehicles while the roofs are too high, exposing workers to rain.

As if that was not enough, the workers still collect fees while standing. “It’s not only about these tollgates,” said Engineer Elias Mudzuri. “Look at the current chaos in vehicle registration, Air Zimbabwe, National Railways of Zimbabwe and other parastatals under the Ministry of Transport. They have collapsed.”

Last year AirZim, which had been failing to pay workers, was suspended by the International Air Travel Association (Iata) for reneging on paying subscription fees to the organisation. One of its planes was briefly impounded after it failed to settle debts to an UK-based firm.

Goche, a former Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, could not be reached for comment last week, as he was said to be out of the country.His secretary said Goche would call back, but had not done so by the time of going to print.

Goche, also a former Minister of State Security, also presides over Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (Caaz), NetOne and Telone.But a senior official with the Ministry of Transport said it was not fair to blame Goche for the collapse of the parastatals because he inherited the problems.