Government to screens class C drivers

From The Citizen Daily, Dar es Salaam
By Frank Kimboy and Samuel Kamndaya, Dodoma

The government is scrutinising class C driving license holders' competence to reduce the increasing number of accidents in the country, Parliament was told at the weekend.

Home Affairs minister Lawrence Masha said his ministry was analysing the licenses in collaboration with the ministry of Infrastructure Development and the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA).

Recent trends indicated that most of the accidents involving passenger vehicles resulted from reckless driving by incompetent drivers, prompting the government to assess the competence of the class C license holders entitled to drive those vehilces.

Drivers with class C licenses, according to Masha, are permitted to drive all types of motor vehicles, including buses and motorcycles.

The minister told the august House that incompetent drivers in possession of licenses meant for driving passenger vehicles were putting lives of wananchi at great risk.

“One intending to drive a passenger vehicle ought to be trained by a qualified institute beforehand….The current situation suggests that most of our passenger vehicle drivers are unqualified for this responsibility,” Masha said.

The bogus class C driving license holders to be revealed during the intensive scrutiny would be provided with lower class driving licenses such as classes B and D, he said.

Meanwhile, Masha said the Traffic Police Department was, in collaboration with TRA, in the process of issuing electronic driving licenses to curb illegal issuance of the same.

He said the process, which would be carried out in stages, would see the first stage taking off in nine regions in September this year. He enumerate the regions included in the first stage as Arusha, Dodoma, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Mwanza and Tanga.

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