Government has observed that limiting the age of second hand vehicles entering the country will disadvantage the majority of Zambians who cannot afford to buy brand new ones.
Communications, Works, Supply, and Transport Minister Christopher Yaluma said government will therefore not limit the age of vehicles entering Zambia.
Mr. Yaluma was reacting to calls by Toyota Zambia Limited on government to limit the age of second hand vehicles entering the country to four (4) years for cars and pick-ups and five (5) years for trucks in a bid to improve safety conditions on roads.
He argued that vehicles that were unsafe on roads were due to lack of maintenance rather than their age.
Mr. Yaluma told ZANIS that government already has good systems in place to monitor the safety of motor vehicles through the Road Traffic Safety Agency (RTSA) and other local authorities.
He reiterated that government will only limit the age of vehicles coming into the country if there were compelling reasons to do so noting that safety was not one of them.
Mr. Yaluma said most cars that were entering the country were not only in good condition but also very affordable for the majority of Zambians.
He stated that limiting the age of motor vehicles will only benefit players in the local industry and not necessarily benefiting the ordinary Zambians because vehicles would be beyond the affordability of most citizens.
Zambia has in recent years seen an influx of second hand vehicles most of which come from Japan with an age average of about eight (8) to twelve years old.
ZANIS
WELL DONE, THAT WAS JUST A MOVE BY TOYOTA ZAMBIA TO STRENGTHEN THEIR MONOPOLISTIC BEHAVIOR. THEY ARE EXPENSIVE AND DON’T CARE ABOUT CUSTOMERS. IF THEY WERE SERIOUS, THEY WOULD REDUCE THEIR RATES SO THAT EVERY TOYOTA OWNERS CAN AFFORD SERVICING CARS WITH THEM. ACTUALLY REMOVE THE MONOPOLY MR MINISTER. LET ZAMBIANS ALSO OWN TOYOTA DEALERSHIPS. VIVA AUTOREC & ZAMBIANS. MORE SECOND HAND CARS ON THE ROADS.
Age is not a factor but maintenance. For once let ordinary Zedians drive.
Toyota Zambia can compete by having a used car area…after all Toyota is Japanese and they can probably offer better landed cost on vehicles than is obtaining now
How come you haven’t mentioned Salaula??????? Yes no age limit to vehicles – WELCOME TO THE DUMPING GROUND – ne nsoni ta twa kwata!!!! Lets abolish the RTSA for it is now defunct by this declaration!!!!!!!
BA Boxale??? Do you know the cost of a New vehicle landed in Zambia??? How many Zambians would afford?? The second hand vehicles imported are just good and Help poor Zambians, Most people now even in rural areas can afford. What’s your argument do you assemble Vehicles in Zambia??? So what are you trying to protect?? There are a lot other ways you can enforce vehicle fitness on the roads if that’s your concern?? Don’t just condemn without any Facts.
and your wife is a second hand nalemucita!
You DULLARDS at NO POINT have I mentioned BRAND NEW – it is logical to have limits, otherwise anyone can bring in wrecks that are not roadworthy in the rest of the world!!!
It means even a wreck without tyres, engines etc etc theoretically are allowed!!!!
Thumbs up sir Mr Yaluma, thankyou very much ba minister for not restricting age limit for second cars from japan. Toyota Zambia is only complaining because their sales on new cars has dropped drastically since many Zambians are opting for a second hand car as buying a new ones are beyond their means. if people can only maintain their vehicles properly a vehicle can even last upto 30 years without any problem.
@Boxale No.2 if u can manage to buy new expensive clothes and cars lucky you! leave second hands to the poor who cant manage brand new things. May God continue blessing you even more!
TOYOTA zambia should set up a manufacturing plant, not assembly, then we shall limit these salaulaz
Your Toyota Zambia is a dealership or franchise like your KFC. The cost of production is also too high in Zambia and only few can afford a brand new car to keep a manufacturing plant operational; brand new cars cost $15,000 minimum.
Its not affordability. vehicles are reasonably affordable but its the duty which needs to be reviewed. i support calls to limit the age. i do not see how toyota will benefit from this as zambians will be compelled to buy almost new vehicles bought at half the price of a new toyota in zambia. what GRZ need to do is to imposes the same tax rate on almost new vehicles if there worry is that volumes of second hand imports will go down
Good work Hon. Yaluma. The guys at Toyota must consider reducing their prices and also introduce the same credit credit conditions they offer to South Africans if they us to buy their cars. Other wise let the Zambians drive.
Iwe Tarnado zambians do not know to pay back credit ,look at people joining the PF for protection ,like Taima and Namugala these chaps are heavily indebted to CCEC.And their boss has no problem with that fya Boma kabili.Proper CNPs.So no credible company like Toyota would make such a mistake to loan cars to Zambians.In fact it is the banks who are supposed to give such loans, not in your hands but they pay the dealers, that’s how it happens in RSA.
Good move, Honourable Minister. These people advocating this regulation are only interested in boosting their sales, not that they are interested in the safety of motorists and other road users alike. I am glad the Hon. Minister saw through this one.
Yaluma walasa apa peka……panyo pa toyota zambia……free market economy?
Good news from PF so far, i would have been a pedestrian by now……… these car are helping us bane selfish stupid Toyatoyayota
Hahhahahaha, lol!
The Fitness test offered by RTSA needs to change in order for cars to be safe.People get fitness in Zambia without the car having been checked.In the UK the MOT test is carried out every year on vehicles over 3 years and it is quite strigent.Therefore it does not matter how old a car is as long as it passes the MOT test then it is on the road.The system is also decentralised and can be done at any MOT registered garage.
What bad liars the Toyota people are! Anyway, in the U.S. and even in states with strict inspection laws, you see many older used vehicles (although also many more new ones), so it’s not as if Zambia is alone in having old vehicles on the road. Some changes to inspection laws might help (instead of changing laws about commercial vehicle colors), and maybe tax credits for the smaller bus business owners for maintenance and inspection costs.
this is a good move. lets support it. the sugestion by TOYOTA was to protect their bussiness intrests.
“THE OLDER THE CAR” THE MORE EXPENSIVE IT GETS “JUST LIKE WINE” SO TOYOTA ZAMBIA’s SUGGESTION IS BASELESS. LET THEM FACE COMPETITION. NO VEHICLE AGE LIMIT.
@ Field #10 I hope the MOT you are talking about does not include stupid emmissions test because if it does then no car will be on the road except new ones. Safety test is one thing but emmissions test is pathetic.
14. it does include emission tests and if a vehicle is regularly serviced or serviced prior to the test it usually passes an emission test.If not a change to the Cartilic converter does the trick.
Thats a flat out joke all started by the enviromental wackos. There are alot of sensors on these cars and any one of them can cause the check engine light to come on and usually thats a kiss of death for emmisions test. How many people and shops can afford that in Zed my friend. The safety test eg tires, wipers, signal lights, brake lights etc should be paramount.
“Safety was not one of them”?
“Safety was not one of them”?
“Safety was not one of them”?
Baby Jesus, hold me!
this is a very good move by GRZ viva
Yaluma is right, it’s not age of the vehicle that matters but rather the fitness. In the UK and most nations vehicles made in the ’70s are still running on London roads and are exempted from paying road tax, but do go for fitness test. More over owning a car should not be seen as a symbol of wealth but a necessity. For those condemning gvt that Zambia is a dumping place, are unrealistic and out touch with what is obtaining on the ground. We need to grow our economy first, before we can think of such choices. China the second largest world economy can’t afford to cut emmissions as such a move will compromise their efforts to grow their econmy.Thumbs up mr. minister our people need those vehicles just like they need salaula. Toyota zambia are finding it hard to compete and want a…
Toyota craves super profits. Can’t work in Zambia, am afraid! A lot of Zambian families have a vehicle today. Any tampering with the freedom to buy a second-hand vehicle would not only be extremely unpopular, but would also be politically counter- productive.
Real reason for not limiting age is the duty and other taxes GRZ gets due to the influx of these cars e.g. tax on fuel, tax on garages that fix cars, sell parts etc, import tax and so forth
at one backward-south africa went on to deny zedian entry with second leg cars in order to promote sales for their EXPENSIVE cars !
mwilalaba !
we’re all driving and by the end of PF’s second term,bonsee tulehenya !
Am I the only one that thinks the age of a car is correlated to how safe it is? Don’t you think the influx of these old cars is a contributiing factor to the number of road accidents currently experienced in Zambia?
It’s all well and good that nearly everyone affords a car, but at the price of human life? I’m sure these cheap cars would not be considered road-worthy in the exporting countries. But hey, why not take advantage of a market with not-too-stringent safety laws?
The government should impose safety standards on imported cars and at the same time improve the public transportation system for those that won’t afford an imported (safe) car.
Where did you get that report that says the age of vehicles is correlated to safety? Most major accidents I have read about were as a result of human error to the contrary. These are moms and paps just trying to make a basic living and should be left alone and focus on the police who allow unsafe vehicles to still pass through road blocks despite basic safety flaws. Whats next regular meat is dangerous we should only allow expensive organic meat?
You’re right; Compos Mentis’ brains are compost. Shallow analysis.
Thanks Hon. Minister. Am able to decently and effectively attend to my family needs because of these affordable Japanese cars.
Mr Minister well spoken but i think it id not even the fitness of vehicles but the roads are extremely dangerous. They are too narrow. We need privaye hands in roads e.g. Kabwe /Lusaka dual carriage way. Toll fees could be introduced and this will secure lives of many Zambians
Why not just relax duty on vehicles that are brand new and those not older than 6 years…Kenya has something like that; this does encourage people to import quality cars. It would also be in our interests if the Ministry gradually phased out the usage of Toyota Hiace mimbuses (14 seaters) as public passenger vehicles and then encouraged usage of bigger 32 seater passenger vehicles like Coasters by relaxing duty on them.
Zambia is always backwards. In Australia you can’t just bring in any second hand car because of restrictions. What PF should do is negotiate with TOyota and others to reduce prices on their new cars for common man to afford. even imported ones are not cheap when you consider clearance fees, travel costs to Dars, clearance costs at Nakonde & tax charges etc. we need to bar cars before 2002.
An ordinary Zambian can not afford a brand new car. In the days we used to have, Commercial Motors, Marunochi, Livingstone Motor Assemblies, Rover Zambia and Leyland Motors it was possible to buy a brand new car/truck locally. Remember the Fiats 127 and so on. However it is beyond the means of an average Zambia to do so now. However I would support the idea of restricting the models to 2000 and above. I think vehicles before 2000 should not be imported into the country. However to implement this government must give enough notice to the Zambian importers
no age limit for carS please!
Someone did mention Kenya in the blog above. Go to Nairobi and see the kind of bangers they have out there due to the age restrictions they have on secondhand cars, Ordinary citizens cannot afford to buy new cars and have taken to recycling old cars which are a danger to other motorists as well as passersby. We welcome this ruling by the well informed minister. Do not have short memories ladies and gentlemen, it was not long ago when Zambia was full of ramshackles with holes on the chassis and you would literary get wet driving in one of them (taxis) in the rainy season whilst going for a night out because of water sipping through underneath chassis.Good news! Zambia has some of the least polluting vehicles in Africa. Try Addis Ababa at night and you will know what I mean,
I also remember in the past where a dog will take a front seat while a garden boy being soaked in heavy rains behind in a van.
My land rover has been running for the past 25 years and will last for the next 15 years. Service and maintain your vehicles. Good decision minister
While vehicles are a necessity in some cases,there should be a level of environmental responsibility by the Gvt through relevant ministers.If we can not manufacture our own vehicles,let alone recycle those with high carbon emissions then it would be wiser to limit second hand imports .It is not out of charity that used cars come “cheaply”from developed nations.Why even armed with education and knowledge do we still behave like little children excited about new toys just to slowly kill ourselves with toxins.It is a well known fact that most second hand cars exported to Africa are red sticker marked due to unacceptable carbon emission levels where they come from.Why agree to be dumping grounds.Alternatively Govt should just work towards revamping motor assembling industries like LMA.
@the Artist, whilst I agree with some of the points you have outlined here, I still know that they are still a lot of wealthy countries that do not manufacture their own brands of cars and still practice heavily in secondhand car dealings. The point being made here is that of affordability and accountability. Accountability should be enforced by the government arm such RTSA whom I think are doing a good job in Zambia and do not tolerate bribery. Non-roadworthy cars should be taken out of our roads. The well run procedural checks would be a little earner for the government and should be ploughed back into modernising road infrastructure. We are only a population of 13 million people with a country 3 times the size of Britain that has a population 5 times ours. and life expectancy dbl ours!
apologies for double entry…
All those in favor of restrictions have not given one credible reason for their argument. Some of the planes we all still fly in are over 30years old, its all about maintenance rather than age. Zambia is not australia and negotiating with toyota to reduce price is a joke. Let the market dictate and if Toyota Zambia cant compete they should get out of the kitchen and let somebody who can balance used toyotas and new toyotas come into play. LEAVE PEOPLE ALONE THEY ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS!!!!!
”The vehicles are not only in good condition but also VERY affordable for the majority of zambians”.I like this statement.
No wounder ba kaponya na ba ngwangwazi say Ka Motoka aka nika wire… So we shall continue seeing tuma wire twama Motoka on our roads i this age limit is not considered.In the name affordablity you run with that kind of a car for 5years how will it be after 6 to 10 yrs?
Hey,
What should we do. ZRA have put up this calculate for motor vehicles, but i hear they dont follow it. is it true??help, us.
Hey,
What should we do. ZRA have put up this calculate for motor vehicles, but i hear they dont follow it. is it true?? since what happens if you calculate and they tel you need add more to the new assessments.