The exemption is carried in a Statutory Instrument 39 of 2012 gazetted on Friday. According to the Toll Roads (Regional Trunks Road Network) (Amendment) Regulations, 2012 (No.5), the country’s 208 chiefs would enjoy the status accorded to senior government officials and diplomats.
However, only one car for each chief has been exempted and the registration numbers were published in the Statutory Instrument. Fortune Charumbira, president of Chiefs Council, told The Standard yesterday the exemption was long overdue as it had been on the cards for more than two years but lacked on its implementation.
“Status of chiefs is not questionable. They are the owners of the country,” Charumbira said. “Why should they pay when diplomats are not paying?” Charumbira said it was embarrassing for chiefs to be asked to pay tollgate fees in their areas of jurisdiction while government vehicles driven by junior officers were exempted.
At a meeting of chiefs last month, some chiefs presented their wish-lists that included the issuance to them of guns, bodyguards and diplomatic passports. They also demanded a share in the Community Development Funds that were given to MPs.
Charumbira said there was never a resolution on these concerns although he admitted that his counterparts had raised them. He said chiefs wanted a greater say in community trusts, inputs distribution and were unhappy in the way the Community Development Funds (CDFs) were being managed if the recent arrests of legislators accused of embezzling the money is anything to go by.
Traditional chiefs have been accused of dabbling in politics thereby diverting from their mandate. During the 2008 elections, some chiefs and traditional leaders forced their subjects to vote for Mugabe.
The exemption will eat into the coffers of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) mandated to administer the country’s roads. Zinara gets its revenue from tollgate fees, fuel levy, vehicle licences, transit fees, abnormal load fees and overload fees.
Tollgate fees rake in US$17 million annually and the revenue is deployed to patch the country’s major roads.
