By Correspondent
The City of Harare has plans to ban commuter omnibuses and pirate taxis within three years, while the Government has crafted regulations to draw taxes from the same pool.
The clear implication of these divergent targets is that no one will be focusing on improving the current transport mess!
New Taxes For Kombis
ZIMRA announced sweeping new presumptive taxes on commuter omnibuses, taxis, driving schools and goods vehicles.
Under Public Notice No. 51 of 2025, gazetted on September 5, kombis carrying 8 to 14 passengers will now pay US$50 per month.
This rises to US$100 for buses carrying 37 passengers or more.
Taxi operators face a flat US$35 monthly levy, while driving schools must part with between US$50 and US$100 per vehicle.
For haulage trucks, the charge is even steeper: US$200 for vehicles over 10 tonnes, and US$500 for those exceeding 20 tonnes.
ZIMRA has appointed the Zimbabwe National Road Administration as its collection agent, and operators will not be able to renew licences without proof of payment or a tax clearance certificate.
Some economists have theorised that the move is evidence of a desperate Treasury seeking to plug revenue shortfalls through taxing the informal sector.
Used as we are to a mass of taxes, what is confusing is how the move is seemingly at odds with Harare’s plans to ban the same kombis.
We Are Banning Kombis, Nothing To Tax!
Harare has plans to ban commuter omnibuses and pirate taxis within three years in a move that is expected to transform the capital city’s transport system.
According to the recently adopted Harare Master Plan, commuter omnibuses will be banned from Harare’s roads within the next three years, while the ban on pirate taxis is with immediate effect.
This 3-year timeline, coming after the embarrassing failure of the Government’s ZUPCO project, is another pie-in-the-sky agenda.
About half of Harare residents use kombis, buses and pirate taxis as their mode of transport, while 16,9% walk, with 28,5% using their vehicles.
Passengers Association of Zimbabwe president Tafadzwa Goliath decried the move, saying Council should focus on other issues of priority.
“The proposed ban on kombis and illegal pirate transport in Harare’s master plan draft raises concern about the practicality and feasibility of such a move.”
“Given the city’s existing infrastructure challenges, including inadequate public toilets and bus termini, it’s crucial for the authorities to address these underlying issues before implementing such a ban.
“The Passengers Association of Zimbabwe believes that a more comprehensive approach is needed, one that balances the need for improved transportation with the reality of the city’s current infrastructure limitations.”
Messy messy messy!
Having introduced a raft of measures to accommodate kombis, Harare is giving up on them.
Some of the bus termini which they created are now white elephants, and the largely unregulated kombis are operating wildly.
However, there is still no viable alternative in sight to replace them.
Government’s ZUPCO project is dead in the water, which is why it is clearly accepting kombis by putting a taxi!
That move is a clear sign of not only accepting but also endorsing their existence.
This makes the Harare Council’s move confusing and even futile, since it has no capacity on its own to introduce a viable transport system.
Three years is a short time to overhaul the current transport system and introduce something totally new.
Worse off, with Mthuli revealing a preference for sucking whatever he can instead of building something new, the bottom line is that this is another cycle of frenetic stagnancy.
After 3 years, we will still be here wondering: why are kombis so reckless and the government so lost for an alternative?
