Daggers have been drawn between the Tour Operators Business Association of Zimbabwe (Tobaz) and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) with the former accusing the latter of creating a monopoly in the issuance of insurance cover.
BY CHARLES LAITON
The impasse between the two organisations has now spilled to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) with Tobaz seeking to bar Zimra from “unconstitutionally operating as an insurance company” while leaving its mandate of collecting revenue.
Tobaz is an association of tour operators in Zimbabwe who provide a wide range of insurance services in the country which include arranging for motor vehicle insurance for foreign registered vehicles entering the country.
In its application, under case number CZ23/14, Tobaz cited Motor Insurance Pool of Zimbabwe, Zimra and the chairman of the Insurance and Pensions Commission as first, second and third respondents respectively.
“The second respondent has then proceeded to itself issue out insurance cover on behalf of the first respondent. It must be emphasised that the first respondent is an association of short term insurers and is not itself an insurance company and cannot therefore offer insurance services,” Tobaz said in its application.
“Zimra has declined to accept insurance other than that issued by itself as agent for the first respondent in the issuance of TIPs. It published a public notice which advised that it could only issue insurance cover for the purposes of the issuance of TIPs.”
“The effect of the above is that a monopoly has been created by Zimra, ICZ and Ipec. No one else can venture into insurance in the area covered by the monopoly. There is no legal authority for this state of affairs. Zimra is not a registered insurer. It cannot lawfully issue insurance, even as an agent of another,” Tobaz added.
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Tobaz further said its members had been barred from issuing insurance policies or arranging for the same for foreign registered vehicles and that much business had as a result, been lost.
“This has been an unnecessary restriction of the applicants’ members’ right to carry on their profession as brokers and providers of insurance,” Tobaz said.
According to Tobaz, it is a legal requirement that all foreign registered vehicles entering Zimbabwe be issued with a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) and that one of the legal requirements for the issuance of such a TIP is that the importer must have valid insurance cover for the period of the validity of the TIP.
“The applicant contends that neither the first nor the second respondents are registered as providers of insurance in accordance with the Insurance Act. This is not denied by these respondents, suffice to say that the Motor Insurance Pool alleges that it has been allowed by the minister responsible for the administration of the Road Traffic Act to issue out insurance policies,” Tobaz said.
“This need not detain us. Only registered insurance providers can issue motor vehicle insurance cover under the Road Traffic Act. To this end therefore, the agreement is ultra vires the Insurance Act and the Road Traffic Act.”
Zimra is yet to file its response and the matter has not been set down for hearing. Tobaz is represented by Advocate Lewis Uriri.
