Govt to vet car imports

By Ndakaziva Majaka

Government plans to introduce conformity tests for ex-Japan (ex-Japs) car imports, a move that will see all vehicles that fail the exercise being barred from entering the country, the Daily News has learnt.

Industry minister, Mike Bimha, yesterday told the media in Harare that Zimbabwe was “the only country where you find cars coming from Japan getting in without any conformity assessment”.

He said the vetting was in line with concerns over issues of nuclear radiation to do with some of the vehicles.

“Some countries are very, very strict about the importation of cars from Japan, which I think we need to move towards as a country. It is incumbent to make sure that your citizens are protected,” Bimha said.

He was responding to industry concern over operations of French standards firm, Bureau Veritas, amid concerns it was becoming a burden on local firms.

Bimha said it was up to government to take part in the making up of the country’s conformity list.

“…but by the way, it is not all products that are subjected to conformity assessment, it is really selected products and it is entirely up to us as a country to add or remove some products, he said.

This comes as Japanese authorities in March said they had found out that on-road emissions were much higher than indicated in laboratory tests, particularly for certain diesel-powered vehicles made by Toyota Motor Corporation, Nissan Motor Company and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation.

The investigation — conducted by the Japanese transport ministry — raised eyebrows locally, given that the bulk of Zimbabwe’s 1,2 million vehicle population comprises mainly ex-Japs.

While vehicles that turn two to five years old are taken back to the dealership in developed countries, most ex-Japs making their way into the country are older than five years, with mileages mostly above 80 000 kilometres.

Bimha’s plan comes at a time capacity utilisation for local car assemblers fell below five percent at the end of 2015. Daily News