Zimbabwe’s e-tricycle crackdown puts rural women’s livelihoods at risk

Mutare, Zimbabwe – Daires Mutamangira was ferrying a customer and groceries on her electric tricycle along a dusty and unpaved footpath when traffic police arrested her in eastern Zimbabwe last month.

The officers demanded to see the e-tricycle’s registration and her driver’s licence, which she could not produce. She tried to negotiate, but they fined her $15 on the spot.

“I never thought they would be that cruel considering I was riding on the outskirts of the shopping centre and far away from the highway.”

Her experience reflects a growing police crackdown on e-tricycles in rural areas, such as Hauna and Chipinge in Manicaland Province.

Annual registration and licensing costs amount to nearly $500, far beyond the reach of the 300 rural women with e-tricycles, most of whom are single mothers and widows trying to make a living.

Powered by lithium batteries and reaching a maximum speed of 25km per hour, the e-tricycles were introduced across the country to empower women in rural areas.

Mutamangira is among 40 women who received an e-tricycle, known as Hamba, a Shona word that loosely translates to “go”, in May 2024 to run a small transport business in Hauna. The e-tricycle can carry goods weighing up to 450kg.

That is particularly helpful in Hauna, a farming community about 55 kilometres from Zimbabwe’s third-largest city, Mutare. Farmers need to move fresh produce, such as bananas, tomatoes and onions, from their farms to the highway for loading onto trucks bound for Mutare or the capital Harare. They also rely on e-tricycles to transport groceries and farm goods.