Zimbabwe’s ‘Catch-22’ over toll gate fees

New road tolls introduced by Government recently compare favourably to those in South Africa and Zambia, which range between US$3 and US$20 depending on the vehicle class. On introduction of tolling, fees were pegged at US$1 for small cars, US$2 for commuter omnibuses, US$3 for buses, US$4 for mid-sized lorries, and US$5 for haulage trucks.

However, these tolls have not resulted in any significant improvements to infrastructure, and Government has increased the charges.
Small cars are now paying US$2 with the highest toll increased to US$10.

However, the fact that tolls are still relatively low have not placated citizens who say there simply is not enough disposable income to justify an increase.

Critics say since the formalisation of the multi-currency regime in early 2009, salaries have not increased at the same rate that Government’s charges are.

Others say Zinara has failed to rehabilitate national roads and its thinking that increasing tolls will make the difference is flawed.
“What these people don’t understand is the fact that we are already burdened with other tax obligations and increasing tolling fees will just add more pressure on us,” said motorist Mr Wilfred Dzine. “And it is disheartening to pay these toll fees when proper maintenance is not being done on our roads. They are yet to convince us that money previously collected was used properly.”

Transporters have warned that hike could be passed on to the public.
Public Transporters’ Association spokesperson Mr Esau Mupfumi has said: “The decision should be revisited. It is very unfair because we have not seen any changes on the roads ever since we began paying the money. They think the economy is normal but it’s not, the public simply doesn’t have the money.”

Transport, Communication and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu said the country was collecting about US$40 million yearly under the previous regime.

“There’s need for motorists to pay a little more money to enable the Government to raise funds to rehabilitate the roads and infrastructure,” he said.

The 2012-2016 National Transport Policy says Zimbabwe has a 90 000km road network, of which 14 000km are surfaced, 56 000 are weathered and the rest are gravel.

Experts say a kilometre of tarred road costs between US$850 000 and US$1,2 million. On average, this means it will cost US$581 million to construct a tarred road from Harare to Beitbridge.

But according to the Journal of Transport and Supply Chain Management In Zimbabwe, determination of toll fees was done arbitrarily, basing on an estimation of what Government assumed people could afford.

“It is, however, notable that these rates are not based on any scientific basis, such as per kilometre charge, but rather on a gut feeling of what might be affordable to the average road-user as well as the convenience of collecting the fee,” reads the journal.