HARARE – Zimbabwe is set to replace its metal disc driver’s licence with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) compliant plastic one, Transport and Infrastructure Development minister Felix Mhona said Wednesday.
Mhona told journalists the new licence will be unveiled on June 19, 2023.
“I am happy that this is one of our major milestones in terms of being SADC compliant regarding the issuance of licence.
“The new driver’s licence is fully compliant with the standard specifications of SADC, COMESA and East African Community.
“This demonstrates our commitment to harmonised and standardised driver training, testing and certification within the entire 25 tripartite regional countries,” he said.
The new licence enables local drivers to drive in 25 African countries, among them South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Eswatini, Sudan, Tunisia, Tanzania, Zambia, Lesotho, Libya, Eritrea, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia.
The minister said existing metal driver’s licence disks would be phased out progressively.
The new drivers’ licence also enhances the country’s capacity to develop an electronic database of all licensed drivers which will be linked to all relevant stakeholders and enforcement agencies, said Mhona.
The top government official said the internationally recognised driver’s licence has 13 categories which conform to the requirements of the United Nations Conventions on Road Traffic International Organisation for Standardisation and International Electro technical Commission.
“The categories will also accommodate different sizes of vehicles and prevent the current scenario where drivers are tested on a small vehicle and be authorised to drive a very large vehicle which the driver may not be able to control in a safe manner,” he said.
Other drivers outside the professional drivers’ categories will undergo eye test and updating of biometric records after every five years.
He however said the ministry was putting in place a plan to clear the backlog of drivers’ licence disks, currently sitting at 600,000.
“I am pleased to inform you that during the first phase, we will prioritise those with manual certificates of competences issued between 1 January 2019 and 30 June 2019.
“Subsequently, other drivers on the backlog will be informed,” said Mhona.
