TRANSPORT OPERATORS ASSOCIATION OF ZIMBABWE v MINISTER OF TRANSPORT & ANOR 2012 (2) ZLR 378 (H)

Flynote

Statutes — regulations — validity — regulations purportedly enacted by relevant Ministry — enabling Act providing for enactment by Minister — regulations invalid in toto

Statutes — regulations — validity — when ultra vires — regulation going further than enabling provision in Act

Headnote

The applicant sought a declaratur to the effect that the Road Traffic (Construction and Equipment Use) Regulations 2010 (SI 154 of 2010) and the amendments thereto were invalid, null and void, alternatively, that s 10(2) of the Regulations was ultra vires the Road Traffic Act [Chapter 13:11] and therefore null and void. That section purported to prohibit the use of left hand drive heavy vehicles in Zimbabwe after a future date. The applicant's argument was that the Regulations were enacted in completed violation of s 81 of the Act, in that, according to the preamble to the Regulations, they were enacted by the second respondent (the Ministry of Transport) when in fact the Act requires that they be made by the first respondent (the Minister).

Held, that the Minister's power to enact regulations is derived from s 81(2) of the Act, which allows him to make regulations in respect of matters specified in the Third Schedule. Paragraph 6 of that Schedule allows for the prohibition of the use on roads of any left hand drive motor vehicle, "unless such motor vehicle is provided with an apparatus to enable the driver thereof efficiently to signal his intention to change direction or stop". The wholesale prohibition of heavy left-hand drive vehicles in the manner provided by s 10(2) of the Regulations was clearly never intended by the legislature.