TellZim Reporter
The
public should not expect the immediate reopening of the Vehicle Inspectorate
Department (VID) because it would be difficult to maintain social distancing
rules at the premises, government has said.
In
a telephone interview with TellZim News, permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Transport and Infrastructural Development, Amos Marawa said the set-up at VID depots
was similar to schools hence the sustained ban.
“We
put the VID in the same category as schools therefore just as schools remain shut;
the department will also remain closed. Prospective drivers, for instance, need
to sit down for a test as a group under supervision, and that would make it
very hard to comply with social-distancing rules required by the current level
two lockdown regulations,” said Marawa.
Asked
what would become of those whose learner’s licences expired in the course of
the ongoing lockdown, Marawa said government had not yet considered that.
“It’s
something we have not considered at policy level. Nobody has come forward to
say we have lost out so we cannot solve a problem when there are no complaints
but now that you have brought it up, we will look into it and find a way
forward,” he said.
Marawa
also said those who require any other VID services like retests and defensive
driving certificates will have to wait as every government move was guided by
the existing lockdown regulations.
VID is a government department under the Ministry
of Transport and Infrastructural Development, operating under the auspices
of the Public Service Commission (PSC).
The closure of its 23 depots countrywide since
the beginning of the lockdown at the end of March means people cannot get
driver’s licences and driving schools have been hit hard.
