Below half of the Zimbabweans are passing drivers license tests, it has emerged.

This is according to the latest Transport data report from the National Statistics Agency (ZimStat).

As stated by the report, 61,644 candidates undertook a certificate of competency test during 3rd quarter of 2023, of which only 43.2% succeeded.

The report further reveals that in all provinces except Bulawayo, proportions of candidates who passed provisional driver’s licenses tests during 3rd quarter 2023, were above fifty percent, ranging from 59.9 percent in Midlands to 78.0 percent apiece in Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central.

About eighty percent of the individuals who were retested, succeeded.

Apparently, there has been allegations in the issuance of driver’s license in Zimbabwe, and the Ministry of Transport bemoaned the vice.

Driving schools are an essential link between learner drivers and officials in the well-organised syndicates that corruptly issue learner licences and certificates of competence in the road tests, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhona said recently as he announced plans to curb and eliminate the corruption.

Minister Mhona told a strategic planning workshop in Mutare that the involvement of driving schools, including the State-owned CMED, in the well-orchestrated corruption syndicates were part of the counter tactics being used to continue corrupt practices.

Digressing from his prepared speech, Minister Mhona said: “It is sad that we still have elements within the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development who are working tirelessly to sabotage the aims of the computerisation system in the acquisition of driver’s licences by members of the public.

“Even after computerising the system, we still have counter tactics being improvised. The sad reality is that the syndicates now make use of driving schools, including the State-owned CMED, to pass on the loot. We are dealing with a cancerous situation. It is endemic.”

Zwnews