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Harare Bureau
IT is an offence for motorists to evade paying fees at tollgates countrywide and those caught on the wrong side of the law will be fined or prosecuted, government has said. In a statement yesterday, the Zimbabwe National Road Administration said any motorist who evaded paying toll fees risked being fined or jailed for up to six months or both.

“The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and the Zimbabwe National Road Administration would like to inform the motoring public that it is an offence to evade paying toll fees at tolling points.

“In terms of the Toll Roads (Regional Trunk Road Network), Regulations, (Statutory Instrument 39 of 2009), any person who fails to stop at a road tolling point or passes through a tollgate without paying a toll fee shall be guilty of an offence and is liable to a fine not exceeding level five or six months imprisonment or to both.”

Zinara urged motorists to comply with the law as the money was used for the maintenance of roads.
Zinara targets to collect more than $100 million in toll fees by the end of the year, boosted by the new toll fees which came into effect in September this year.
Toll fees were hiked by 100 percent in some instances with private motorists now paying $2 up from $1 while haulage trucks are now paying $10 up from $5.
Commuter omnibuses are now paying $3 up from $2, while buses are now paying $4 from $3.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Permanent Secretary Munesu Munodawafa, recently said Zinara expected to collect about $102 million for this year and this had also been boosted by the introduction of technology at toll plazas.

Meanwhile, Zinara, police and the Vehicle Inspection Department have embarked on a joint operation targeting unroadworthy and unregistered vehicles in and around the country.

Yesterday, they were manning roadblocks in most roads, targeting such vehicles.
Several vehicles were reportedly impounded and taken to the nearest police station for further investigations.

Some of those impounded, include mostly kombis whose owners have developed a habit of operating in the country without the required documents.