Non-Tariff Barriers

Complaint

Complaint number

NTB-000-663  

NTB Type

8.8. Issues related to transit  

Complaint

Zimbabwean truck drivers are now facing police harassment near the weighbridge at Matola on the Maputo corridor. The police are taking Zimbabwe drivers licence and their passports, supposedly to check the authentication of the driver holding the documents. The driver is released in order to go and off load and is briefed that the police will have an answer for him on his return.

On his return driver is told that the licence is a fake and the driver is to pay a spot fine of ZAR5000.00. It appears that the police are rubbing the metal disc with something, so that certain information is now very faded, and not legible. When the driver produces his international drivers’ licence, to confirm the validity that is taken away by police, who only return it after some hours, with the expiry date is now illegible. The ZAR 5000.00 rand fine is enforced. The language is a convenient barrier, as the police claim not to be able to speak English. All fines in Mozambique seem to be ZAR 5000.00.

Drivers are detained for days until they come up with some sort of cash ranging from ZAR400.00 upwards if they are lucky. This problem is more prevalent during weekends.

Please can we have a stop put to this practice? Defacing a Government document I believe is an offence, and should not be tolerated. Business is challenging enough as it is, without trade barriers being further forced upon the transport industry.  

Status note

During the meeting of the SADC Sub Committee on Trade Facilitation, Zimbabwe reported that the drivers no longer faced this problem hence the problem is resolved.  

Progress update note

On 20th August 2015, Mozambique focal point provided the following feed back and explanation:
An internal a survey was conducted, in which it was adduced that traffic agents in service at Maputo corridor, seize documents of offenders not domiciled in Mozambique.
This is in compliance with the requirements established in paragraph 3 of Article 122, of the Auto Transport Regulation, which states that driving license, logbook and the title of property owned vehicle registration could be seized until payment or deposit, is made by the offender not resident in Mozambique who cannot pay the fine or deposit at the time of verification of the contravention.
We inform also that the attitude of the traffic police agents in that corridor is not meant to persecute foreign drivers, as it is advocated in complaint, but rather it is part of the fulfillment of prescribed by law.
It should be clarified also that the results of the survey may not be accurate because denunciators omitted the personal data of vehicles enrollment, fact date occurrence and the proper identification of acting agents.
With regards to the accusation related with the fact that traffic police agents try to “make useless “driving licenses of Zimbabwean citizens, this is again another accusation not supported by evidence and no elements such as the identification of concerned drivers, the plates of their vehicle registration, and the police agents offenders identification number are provided.

With regards to the use of the Portuguese language as a barrier of communication, this might be true. So, in order to address this issue, we recommend that all those interested in doing business with Mozambique do enable their agents in the use of Portuguese language or other Mozambican languages or use a translator in order to be able to communicate properly. We believe that this is also what happens to Mozambicans when traveling abroad.

For future cases, we request the complainants provide us the identity of the victims, plates of their vehicle registration, and the police agent’s offender’s identification number in order to facilitate the investigation.  

Policy or regulatory NTB

No 

Location

Mozambique: Weighbridge at Matola on the Maputo corridor (Weighbridge)  

Reporting Country or Region

Zimbabwe  

Country specific trade issue

No  

Date of incident

2015-02-19  

Status

Resolved  

Date of resolution

2017-05-18  

Product Description

All products

Computer-assisted translation

• English
• Arabic
• French
• Portuguese

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Total value

0  

Date reported

2015-02-26 08:47  

Modified

2017-06-10 05:34