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In April 2013, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority or Zimra has announced that buyers and importers are obligated to buy their import cars insurance upon entry into Zimbabwe. The new rule has been included in Zimbabwe’s Road Traffic Legislation on insurance. Previously, Zimbabwean buyers and importers paid their vehicles’ insurance only after these have been brought from South Africa (where the port is located) to the country. Most of the import vehicles coming in to Zimbabwe are from Japan, and are shipped to Durban and Dar es Salaam. Every year, around fifty thousand pre-owned cars are imported into the country. Those who choose to have their vehicles shipped to Durban may collect their cars at Beitbridge crossing. South Africa prohibits unregistered imported cars from being driven on their roads, so exporters and logistics companies deliver the imported cars into Zimbabwe. The new statute is under the Road Traffic Act which states that all newly-imported motor vehicles that are being driven from border entry points such as Beitbridge and Dar es Salaam to Zimbabwe will be required to purchase insurance from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. The agency will be acting as agents for the Motor Insurance Pool at the ports. This was all written in a joint notice sent out by the Zimra and the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe. The temporary insurance cover will be valid for 14 days from the issue date and must be renewed upon the vehicle’s arrival and registration in Zimbabwe. The interim import cars insurance covers third-party liabilities but not vehicular damage. If any accidents occur during the temporary policy’s cover period, a report will be made to the police and the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe. There is already a local traffic legislation that prohibits the driving of an uninsured vehicle in Zimbabwe, due to the high frequency of vehicular accidents attributed to the poor state of the country’s roads. A case in point is the Harare-Beitbridge Road linking South Africa to Zimbabwe. In the last ten years, the highway has claimed hundreds of lives. The Harare-Beitbridge Road is the main thoroughfare on which imported vehicles are driven from the Beitbridge border crossing to Zimbabwe. But what does it all mean for the importers? The new import cars insurance regulations will surely add to the cost of importing vehicles in Zimbabwe but it will offer compensation should an accident occur during the trip from port to the buyer’s home in Zimbabwe, or while processing the vehicle’s registration papers and (permanent) insurance policy. Reactions to the new regulation are mixed, with some agreeing that buying insurance upon the vehicle’s entry is good for the safety of motorists. Most Zimbabweans, however, are skeptical because they have always paid insurance at the border through insurance companies, and wonder why the revenue authority is suddenly the main collector. They believe that this situation will take business from insurance companies and make buyers pay more so that the Zimbabwean government can have more. Whichever way you look at it, buyers will surely have to pay for their import car’s insurance both for the 14-day and a long-term basis. Zimbabweans will just have to think that it will be all for their own protection and safety. Life is priceless.
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import cars, japanese used cars, used cars,
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