A Zimbabwean senator from Matabeleland South is blasting ZIMRA over a treasury order that permanently seizes goods flagged as smuggled without letting people pay duties or fix paperwork mistakes. Nonhlanhla Mlotshwa told the Senate the policy bypassed parliament and is hitting small-scale traders and cross-border shoppers who make documentation errors, and she thinks it might violate constitutional protections for fair administrative process.
Mlotshwa called out an inland checkpoint in Gwanda that functions like a second border post, even though vehicles have already cleared customs at Beitbridge. Travelers coming from Johannesburg get stuck there for hours, and she says ZIMRA never explained the legal justification or why the agency cannot just handle everything at the actual border. She wants the finance minister to show up and explain why the checkpoint exists and how the forfeiture directive got rolled out without legislative approval.
Mlotshwa called out an inland checkpoint in Gwanda that functions like a second border post, even though vehicles have already cleared customs at Beitbridge. Travelers coming from Johannesburg get stuck there for hours, and she says ZIMRA never explained the legal justification or why the agency cannot just handle everything at the actual border. She wants the finance minister to show up and explain why the checkpoint exists and how the forfeiture directive got rolled out without legislative approval.
