By Alois Vinga
GOVERNMENT has made a U-turn on an earlier decision to ban the importation of second-hand vehicles beyond 10 years from manufacture and now instead demands import licences to be obtained.
Delivering the 2021 national budget last year, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube imposed the ban on second-hand private use vehicles above 10 years from the date of manufacture.
He said about US$1.3 billion was spent on imported buses, light commercial and passenger motor vehicles from 2015 to September 2020 despite the existence of capacity by the local motor industry to assemble the specific range of motor vehicles.
Ncube said due to lack of effective standards and regulation, unroadworthy vehicles which, in some instances fail to meet environmental and safety standards, had easily found their way onto the market.