A CAR salesman along Simon Mazorodze Road in Harare whistles at potential buyers of scores of trucks neatly parked in the afternoon sun.
A two tonne truck is marked US$15 000 but it’s far from the ‘brand new’ the car dealer touts it to be while attempting to start the engine.
The truck is one of thousands of second-hand vehicles imported each year into Zimbabwe from Europe or Asia, but especially from Japan.
Open spaces in cities such as Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare have been taken over by car dealers selling anything from small sedans to rundown buses.
In as much as the imports satisfy demand for mobility, experts opine the used vehicles are a problem.
They contribute to the pollution burden on a continent that contributes far less than other regions to the emissions that cause global warming.
The latest UN report published in October finds millions of substandard cars that pose safety, health and environmental hazards are exported every year from developed countries to developing countries, largely in Africa.
According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), between 2015 and 2018, some 14 million. older, poor quality vehicles were exported from Europe, Japan and the US.
Four out of five were sold to poorer countries, with more than half going to Africa.
Experts say up to 80 percent failed to meet minimum safety and environmental standards in exporting countries of origin.
As well as causing accidents, these cars make air pollution worse and contribute heavily to climate change.
WHO reports that about seven million people die prematurely each year from air pollution.
It calls sub-Saharan Africa the global capital for road traffic deaths.
The UNEP report notes that importers need to put tougher regulations to stem the flow of these cars.
In their three-year analysis, researchers found that regulations on car imports in the majority of the 146 countries they studied were ‘weak’ to ‘very weak’.
A second study on the issue by the Netherlands Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate shows that many cars and vans shipped from Dutch ports to Africa are outdated and contribute to worsening air quality on the continent.
“What we can say is that of those 14 million vehicles, up to around 80 percent are not roadworthy and don’t meet a vehicle emission standard that is called Euro 4,” said Rob de Jong, from UNEP, one of the report’s authors.
According to the authors, these cars are both ‘dangerous and dirty’.
They believe these imports are responsible for increased levels of road accidents in many poorer African and Asian countries. The cars are also pumping out fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, which are major sources of air pollution in many cities.
“In 2017, the average age of a diesel vehicle imported into Uganda was over 20 years old,” said Jane Akumu, also from UNEP.
“This is the same story for Zimbabwe. In fact, around 30 countries of Africa do not have any age limit on cars. So, any kind of car of any kind of age, can come in.”
Zimbabwe tightens law on second-hand vehicles
Zimbabwe, last week, proposed to ban imports of second-hand vehicles more than 10 years old.
Presenting his 2021 National Budget last week, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube noted that Zimbabweans have spent about US$1,3 billion on importing buses, light commercial and passenger vehicles from 2015 to September 2020.
“This is despite the existence of capacity by the local motor industry to assemble the above-mentioned range of motor vehicles,” said Minister Ncube.
“Furthermore, due to lack of effective standards and regulation, unroad worthy vehicles which, in some instances, fail to meet environmental and safety standards find their way onto the market.
“In line with the National Development Strategy 1, which underscores value addition, I propose to remove second-hand motor vehicles aged 10 years and above, from the date of manufacture at the time of importation, from the Open General Import Licence.”
Minister Ncube said commercial vehicles such as tractors, haulage trucks, earth-moving equipment and other specialised vehicles used in mining and construction would be exempt from this requirement.
In 2011, the Government banned the importation of vehicles older than five years but later backed down.
Commenting on the NDS recently, Minister Ncube said Zimbabwe has the capacity to manufacture automobile products such as buses and cars through Quest Motors in Mutare and Willovale Mazda Motor Industries in Harare.
“Surely, we will give incentives for local production of cars and buses,” he said.
“We could even say to the Government, for all the pool cars that we use in Government, let us buy local.
You can see I am already giving hints.
That is, in a way, industrial policy, the way we intervene strategically to support growth of our industry, clearly that is part of NDS1.”
Local car producers, such as Quest Motors, said they should be employing about 1 500 workers per shift but only manage about 150 at the moment, due to various constraints, including low demand.
Quest Motors is currently producing Foton, Chery and JMC vehicle models which they say are cheaper for the local market, but still equal to the task like any of the latest Toyota, Mazda, Nissan or any of the popular trendy international models.
Quest Motors, last year, also signed an agreement with a Chinese bus manufacturing company, Zhongtong, the manufacturer of the ZUPCO buses, to manufacture the same model buses under franchise.
Over the past decade, Zimbabwe has witnessed an unprecedented rise in the volume of vehicular traffic on the roads, driven by the availability of cheap imported cars, mainly from Japan.
And the used cars are not checked for emissions levels when they enter the Southern African nation from ports in Tanzania, Namibia and South Africa, which notably allows the importation of used vehicles only for re-export to other countries.
Still not safe!
In addition, all vehicles imported from Japan now require prior clearance to ensure they are not contaminated by radioactivity from the 2011 accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
The need for radiation clearance was part of a Statutory Instrument 281 of 2020 gazetted by President Emmerson Mnangagwa last Friday.
In an interview with The Patriot, Radiation Protection Authority of Zimbabwe corporate communications officer Chamunorwa Murava said the authority will be monitoring vehicles being imported into Zimbabwe to assess if they are not contaminated by radiation.
“This is standard practice meant to enhance the safety of the people against possible exposure to radiation and is done for imports from countries that have experienced nuclear disasters, including vehicles,” said Murava.
“Our teams will be deployed at the countries’ ports of entry to monitor the vehicles being imported into the country and if any are found to be contaminated, these will be isolated and decontaminated on site in line with SI 281 of 2020 (Radiation Protection Safety and Security Amendment Regulations 2020 no. 5).
Radiation Protection Authority of Zimbabwe is a regulatory body established under the Radiation Protection Act (Chapter 15:15) with a mandate to protect the people and the environment from the adverse effects of ionising radiation.
Japan, the biggest market source, is considered a high-risk radiation country due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant incident of March 11 2011.
It is the only country that has experienced a radiation event above level two on the INES as the Fukushima Nuclear Plant accident was rated 7 on the INES.
According to the statutory instrument, any person who does not comply with the regulations or who makes a false statement or declaration or falsifies any documents concerning the country of origin of a vehicle shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding Level 5 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or both such fine and such imprisonment.
It remains to be seen how Zimbabwe will enforce these latest policies in its quest to protect the environment and its people.