By Harry Taruva and Delicious Mathuthu
Zimbabwe is set to introduce a new drivers’ licence in line with expected regional and international standards.
The country will be joining 25 other countries in Southern and East African regions to improve on road safety.
Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister, Hon. Felix Mhona, said the new Zimbabwean plastic drivers licence will be fully compliant with regional standards.
“The upcoming new driver’s licence is fully compliant with the standard specifications of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and East African Community (EAC).
“This demonstrates our commitment to harmonize and standardize driver training, testing and certification within the entire 25 Tripatite Regional Countries i.e. Republics of South Africa, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, DRC, Angola, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Djibouti, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia; United Republic of Tanzania; Kingdoms of e-Swatini and Lesotho; States of Eritrea and Libya; Arab Republic of Egypt; Federal
Democratic Republics of Ethiopia and Somalia and Zimbabwe,” he said.
Minister Mhona said the new system will maintain an electronic data base of all drivers and all relevant stakeholders and law enforcement agencies on the country will have access.
New categories will be introduced in the new licensing system in line with United Nations and other international organisations expected standards in road safety.
“The 13 categories of the new driving licence conform to the requirements of the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic, International Organization for Standardization and International Electro-technical Commission,” Minister Mhona said.
The new licencing system seeks to ensure efficiency and close monitoring of motorists and public transporters in Zimbabwe as well.
In January this year, 2023, a road safety indaba was held where it was agreed that all public transportation vehicles should be tracked, monitored and have speed limits governed.
“The Second Republic is committed to formulating robust legal, policy and administrative mechanisms to improve the country’s road safety performance as it seeks to achieve the targets set within the National Development Strategy (NDS) 1.
“In January this year, we held the National Road Safety Indaba which resolved to introduce speed limiting devices, vehicle tracking devices and a government monitored vehicle tracking system for all public service buses.
“The vehicle tracking system will ensure compliance to prescribed speed limits, and make it easier to identify, in real-time, the driver of a particular bus.
“Pursuant to this, legal frameworks to introduce speed limiting and monitoring devices will soon be introduced.
“Our commitment is on improving the enforcement capacity of all traffic law enforcement agents by embracing Information Communication Technology (ICT) and digital technologies to record violations and enforce traffic regulations.
“This is also consistent with the objectives of NDS 1 to modernise the economy using ICT and other digital technologies,” Minister Mhona said.
He said government will also establish a National Call Centre for the public to report unsafe vehicles, negligent and reckless driving.
The new drivers’ licence will have a transitional arrangement from the present numerical classes to the new alpha-numerical categories.
After the transitional phase, the new driving licence will consolidate the professional driver’s permit and the defensive drivers certificate onto a single card.
Professional drivers will be periodically certified and required to go for eye tests to assess their vision and the ability to focus on and discern objects, every two years.
The system will see the newly introduced drivers’ biometrics being periodically updated.
Drivers outside the professional category will also undergo eye tests and updating of their biometric records after every 5 years.
Meanwhile, the Ministry has a backlog of over 600 000 applicants waiting for their driver’s licenses to be printed and issued by Central Vehicle Registry (CVR).
Due to the backlog, the new system will see all drivers who would have passed their driving competence tests able to receive the new licence within seven (7) days.
“This convenience to our citizens comes from the automation processes and the instant printing capability of this highly secure plastic card,” Minister Mhona said.
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