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before a Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development today to give oral evidence on the proposed ban of left-hand drive vehicles and those that are over five-years-old.
Committee chairperson, Mr Blessing Chebundo (MDC-T) yesterday said the committee wanted Minister Goche to appraise them on Statutory Instrument 154.
Mr Chebundo said they also want Minister Goche to tell them about the goings-on at Air Zimbabwe and on tollgates.
Government in September last year gazetted Statutory Instrument 154 of 2010 (Road Traffic Construction), which provided that vehicles that have been on the road for at least five years would not be allowed to enter the country after March 31 this year.
Mr Chebundo said: “We want to be appraised of Statutory Instrument 154, about tollgates and Air Zimbabwe.
“At Air Zimbabwe the company is reportedly down, so we want to know what the Cabinet sub-committee tasked with looking at problems at Air Zim is doing to help the airline,” Mr Chebundo said.
The proposed ban of left-hand drive vehicles and those that are over five years old have already faced some resistance with transport operators accusing the ministry of unilaterally gazetting the regulations.
At a public hearing on Statutory Instrument 154 organised by the same committee in Harare last week, stakeholders in the transport sector said it was inadvisable for the regulations to be effected now.
They submitted that the country could not afford to ban second hand vehicles over five years old because the local car industry was not capable of providing vehicles.
They also argued that the economy does not permit the general populace to buy new vehicles because people do not have money.
There are also indications that the same public hearings in Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare shared the same sentiments.
Mr Chebundo said the committee would prepare a report, which will be presented in Parliament for debate before it is forwarded to the executive.
“After we have compiled our report, we will present it in the full plenary for debate.
“It will then be forwarded to the executive,” Mr Chebundo said.