via Outcry over commuter omnibus phase-out – The Standard. 15 June 2014 by Musa Dube
The government’s plan to ban kombis and raise the minimum age requirement for public transport drivers to 35 years from the current 25 years, has sparked heated debate with some people accusing the government of having misguided priorities.
The minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development Obert Mpofu last week said government was working on a raft of changes to address the challenges besetting the transport industry.
He said some of the challenges affecting the transport system was traffic congestion in cities like Harare and phasing out kombis was necessary in order to decongest the cities.
According to the minister, the measures, contained in the National Transport Policy, will be implemented over the next two years. Under the new arrangement, high-volume buses operated by a limited number of private players will replace commuter omnibuses.
The new system, said the minister, would significantly reduce bus fares and largely affect commuter omnibuses with a carrying capacity of less than 26.
One such operator, Metro Buses, has already been commissioned to participate in a pilot project of the new system. Minister Mpofu said the review of public transport drivers’ ages was a response to a spate of accidents which often involved young drivers.
However in an interview in Bulawayo last week, the Zimbabwe Passengers Association (ZPA) secretary general Paul Makiwa disagreed with the approach that the government was taking in addressing the transport sector challenges.
He said the government was addressing the symptoms of the problem instead of dealing with the real problem. He claimed that 60% of the accidents were caused by government’s failure to follow the Road Traffic Act.
“You will find that at the Vehicle Inspection Department [VID], a kombi which is supposed to carry 15 passengers is licensed to carry 18 passengers,” said Makiwa.
He said shifting the minimum age requirement for public transport drivers to 35 years from the current 25 years was not the panacea to the high accident rate in the country.
“The age changes will not have any effect. There are going to be high accidents as long as real problems are not addressed. A 15-seater should carry 15 passengers to avoid overloading. Most of the accidents are caused by overloading,” said the ZPA official.
He said most of the kombis that minister Mpofu wanted phased out were doing a great job in transporting people to areas that are shunned by buses.
“These kombis are the ones that are operating in the rural areas. We have places that have gone 20 years without buses plying there. Many bus operators are not willing to go to those areas because of a poor road network,” said Makiwa.
Makiwa said the minister should instead spend his energy fixing the roads that are in a deplorable state.
“He should address the problem of the road network first before he starts phasing out the kombis. If he addresses the challenges of poor roads, it would result in more buses coming and the kombis would phase themselves out,” he said.
A kombi operator, Trynos Langa, echoed the same sentiments saying the move was going to affect their business. He said 90% of the kombi drivers were below 30 and if they were banned from driving, it would cause serious challenges.
“About 90% of the kombi drivers are below the age of 35. Where do you want them to work if the age limit is reviewed upwards? Where should they go?” queried Langa.
However, some women in Bulawayo welcomed the move to have more mature people drive the kombis as the behaviour of the young drivers left a lot to be desired.
“The behaviour of these young kombi drivers and their conductors is bad. They don’t have respect for passengers especially women. We will be happy if we have mature people driving these kombis,” said Sheila Ncube.
She added that the move would probably be the solution to the high rate of accidents on the country’s roads.
Reports say close to 2 000 people die in accidents annually, with most accidents linked to human error.
COMMENTS
If I thought Mpofu and co were serious and there was no motive i.e to give the Bus tender to cronies I would applaud them. These guys that run the Kombis are rude, disrespectful and dangerous. I happened to catch one from the Botswana boarder to Bulawayo and the man stopped at a bottle store on the way, left us squashed whilst him and his windy (conductor) took a drink of alcohol.Our complaints were ignored. Mpofu and his Zanu after all created the situation by destroying the transport system.
Kombis should not be our first choice. You are cramed in it. But the major challenge with busses is overloading due to standing passengers. On the whole, kombiis can go. They have done a sterling job to be honest but they are not a long term solution. Big buses thumps up.
people should stop using businesses owned by this thug Mpofu
Even America has Combis,i used to board them whn iws there,the people choose what they want its not for the minister to choose for us.The simple solution is to move the capital city ,hw can the city expand whn Zanu just think of Housing stands nt factories .Build factories away frm Harare on satelite towns then you decongest the City,that City ws built for 4mln people,now we are more than 13mln ,their solution is chase away the people and ban the Combis and next they wil come to our cars and say all cars older than 5yrs are banned dont think it will end there,they are crazy these guys
I follow you Zindonga …. Just decongest the cities that’s all . Revive places like Westgate , Machipisa , Sam levy Village ,Chitungwiza town centre etc . Have more direct route transport say From Kuwadzana to Machipisa . Then we do not have a congested City .
Pub talk. Zanu again clueless on how to solve the country’s problems. He is busy looting ,but he has to seem concerned.
Just shut up and spare us this drivel. The other idiot will come up with the new capital in Mugabe’s home are.
We are not subjects to your Chinese masters, tell them to keep their Zhing zhong buses.
Once again, the fruits of a corrupt system. If you want a job in the civil service you need to know someone high up or grease some palms. With government heavily centralised in Harare, people from around those areas have access to the influential people in the system who organise jobs for them in return for money. Also the effect of government preferring to employ Border Gezi graduates means that deserving candidates from Mat are overlooked in order to accommodate the above mentioned. Zanu Pf has infected the country with a corruption cancer that has
spread to all levels of life in Zim.
its amazing how the thugs are courting the chinese and indians and doing as they wish to the citizens
Kombis must be go and be replaced by minibuses and big buses. I mostly hate kombis for the robberies. I know of a number of people who are victims of robbery after boarding a kombi.
the problem here is not kombis Mr Minister,how many lanes are on Samora Machiel into town,and out of town,how many more factories have been build besides the old ancient industrial area,what have u done to expand the cities to accommodate the ever increasing population.mind u traffic congestion is caused by vehicles carrying people,so my point is create more industrial areas across all cities,then widen your roads to accommodate more vehicles going the same direction to ease the flow of vehicle..doing away with kombis is only a way of making pple stranded in queues at bus stop and ranks.if u are doing it because u and your friends own buses it good for u bt the person who commutes every days suffers the consequences.Think abt it before u phase out human from cities coz congestion is caused by pple who use the vehicle not the other way round..hamano zvichaitika muZIMBABWE …
Obert Bofu needs to understand that pipe dreams dont solve a nation’s woes and that curing symptoms only isnt the way to get rid of a problem. Banning kombis cld b the mother of all blunders ever made by our damned govt. Ofcourse like in any functioning system, u’ll find a few odd problems but that doesnt mean all kombis are run or manned by thugs and crooks. Anyway if thats th case then i must say well done Zanu goons, for u were such a great example to these guys. they take after u. I reap what u saw. I just wonder what we’ll reap frm the govt’s encouragement of looting and daylight robbery by our police’ out on the highwaya of zim.. The gooks never stop scheming. vakomanaka!