Source: Passengers give ZUPCO 24-hour ultimatum to solve transport blues – The Zimbabwean
Passengers and commuters have in recent months been left frustrated
and stranded owing to ZUPCO’s glaring failure to provide buses which
has resulted in crippling transport shortages across the country.This compelled PAZ to engage Tinashe Chinopfukutwa of Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights, who on Thursday 5 May 2022 wrote a letter to ZUPCO
and Local Government and Public Works Minister Hon. July Moyo
requesting the state-run transport utility and its parent ministry to
fix the transport crisis, which is preventing people from moving
freely to conduct their business.In the letter, PAZ said the failure by ZUPCO to provide and supply
adequate buses and commuter omnibuses amounts to a violation of
commuters and passengers’ right to freedom of movement as provided in
Section 66(2) of the Constitution.The passengers’ representative body said people who are fortunate to
board ZUPCO buses are crammed in over-crowded termini hence running
inimical to the purpose behind the granting of ZUPCO monopoly by
government, which was to prevent the spread of coronavirus. PAZ said
it is concerned that commuters are at a greater risk of contracting
coronavirus from the few over-crowded ZUPCO buses.PAZ also stated that ZUPCO’s failure to provide public transportation
service despite being given a monopoly by government in 2020 to
conduct public transportation services to the exclusion of any other
public transporter, amounts to inefficient and unreasonable
administrative conduct which is a breach of commuters’ right to
administrative justice guaranteed under Section 68(1) of the
Constitution.ZUPCO’s failure to solve the transport crisis, PAZ said, will leave it
with no option but to institute legal proceedings against the
state-run transport utility.
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