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. “It was scary,” she told Al Jazeera. “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. Source of income 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. …