Vehicles without valid licences shall be denied passage at toll gates following the gazetting of Statutory Instrument 5 of 2024, the Toll Roads (National Road Network) (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No 16), by Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona last week.
Statutory Instrument 5 of 2024 also decreed sanctions on persons who “willfully” or accidentally damage toll gates. Reads in S.I. in part:
Any person who willfully damages, defaces, or alters in any way any tolling infrastructure shall be liable for its replacement cost as may be determined by the Road Fund…
Any person who is involved in an accident that results in the damage of any tolling infrastructure shall be liable for the repair of such damage.
Under the new regulations, vehicles driven along the country’s highways without valid licences shall not pass through any toll gate. Reads the S.I.:
For the purposes of enforcing collection of all required fees, an authorised person shall be permitted to deny passage through a Tolling Point to any vehicle that has an expired or does not have a valid vehicle licence in terms of the Vehicle Registration and Licensing Act.
ZINARA board members’ vehicles are exempted from paying tollgate fees for the duration of their appointment. Said Mhona:
Vehicles belonging to members of the ZINARA Board members for the duration of their appointment and any other institution or persons as may be approved by ZINARA provided that vehicles exempted under this provision shall not exceed 2 vehicles per such institution or person.
Meanwhile, vehicle owners living within a 10km distance from a tollgate shall pay toll fees discounted by 10 per cent.
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Currently, residents staying within 10km of a tollgate situated on an ordinary road are paying monthly toll fees of US$150 and will enjoy a US$15 discount.
Those staying within a 10km radius of a toll gate on a premium road will be discounted US$20 of the US$200 monthly fee they are currently paying.
People who qualify for the discounts shall be issued with a residential discount exemption certificate.
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