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From failure to meet the transport needs of commuters to literally killing them; is the idea of letting Zupco monopolise the urban transport system sustainable?
Without the kombis, can Zupco truly go it alone? Can the company plug the ticketing loopholes and other inefficiencies? Is possible for the buses to stop killing people? Are the accidents due to lack of training for the bus drivers? Or could it be because of faulty vehicles? Is it lack of experience, negligence or long working hours that cause these accidents?
Government is adamant that kombis that are privately operated but want to get back on the road need to register under the Zupco franchise.
Many operators have resisted and continue to do so.
Others have resorted to operating illegally and playing cat and mouse games with members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police traffic department.
In all this chaos and power games, it is the commuters that pay the price. They wait for hours on end to catch a lift and because of a lack of a reliable timetable, they often do not know when the bus will come to pick them up.
Since they were fully reintroduced in December last year, the buses have taken many lives in avoidable accidents attributed either to human error or faulty buses. This has left many people and stakeholders wondering on the best course of action to take.
Two accidents involving Zupco buses recently left scores of people injured and many other vehicles extensively damaged. Others were lucky to escape with their lives.
Last weekend saw 10 people being seriously injured due to a defective Zupco bus and this is not the first time accidents of defective buses under the franchise have occurred.
Barely two days before this incident, a woman escaped death by a whisker after a bused missed crashing her to death by a few centimetres while she was in the Central Business District.
In February eight passengers were left dead while close to 90 others were injured. In a period of less than two weeks, buses belonging to the company were involved in serious road accidents in Kadoma, Kwekwe and Beatrice along the Harare-Masvingo highway.
One of the Zupco buses overturned at the 57-kilometre peg along the Harare–Masvingo highway, leaving 27 people injured.
Last year a bus belonging to a private player had its rear axle dismembered from the body risking many lives on board while reports of some losing brakes or developing steering control issues have occurred, but where are we heading in this trajectory.
Money leakages
With reports, including court cases involving conductors that reportedly re-issue tickets and then pocket proceeds of the ticket sales, can Zupco ever be a viable business.
Sources at Zupco said the number of conductors that have been fired for financial mismanagement has now gone past one thousand.
Basing on the huge number of conductors that were caught siphoning Zupco coffers, the company might have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions. And it appears Zupco is struggling to put an end to this looting.
Stranded commuters
Government is slowly revising lockdown restrictions to match the demand of sustaining the economy and the transport sector is one of the businesses that has been affected.
Each day the number of commuters to various destinations increases as all sectors of the economy have been allowed to do business.
Schools are opening, and kids need transport just like everyone else who depends on public transport when traveling to work or for business.
What is the problem now? For a fact it is the public transport management system.
Government came up with the idea of revitalising Zupco and through a murky Belarus deal, the passenger company’s fleet has been enabled tremendously though not sufficiently.
The already supplied new bus fleet is overwhelmed by demand such that a method of hiring buses from private sector firms was endorsed to augment Zupco’s dire need.
Jobs were created in the form of drivers, conductors, cashiers to mention only a few. Good move indeed, but a lot of questions still arise.
Last week Local Government and Public Works minister July Moyo reiterated government’s stance on the return of privately-owned kombis to start operating.
Government is still coercing kombi operators who want to have their fleet back on the road to register their vehicles under the Zupco franchise.
Why not try to take the plans of the private sector operators on board so that they try it out? Or maybe there is a game invisible to us all that is taking place.
Is it that some powerful people are benefitting from this exercise? Take Information Secretary Nick Mangwana’s stance, for instance, he openly advocates for kombis that are privately owned to remain barred.
“As we gradually ease down the lockdown measures we have experienced since 30 March 2020, we should never go back to the unregulated Kombi anarchy of yesteryear. We can’t have the indignity from loutish behaviour which degrades women and disregards courtesy to others,” Mangwana said.
That is a story for another day but what about the plight of passengers in terms of safety. Some players that registered with Zupco now mull withdrawing their services. What does this mean?
Greater Harare Association of Commuter Operators (GHACO) secretary-general Ngoni Katsvairo said his association was optimistic that government will work with them to restore order when kombis are allowed back on the roads as they were urging government to empower them through a law.
“We are urging government to empower associations through a legal instrument so that all the sanitisation of passengers and vehicles will be done by the associations as it would be difficult to monitor individual processes,” he said.
Katsvairo said registering kombis under the Zupco franchise was a good initiative for control of activities on the ground but they were appealing for government to add more franchises.
“We are appealing for government to at least create other franchises so that operators have more choices for their convenience. Zupco should not go it alone.”
He said his association was also making proposals for all stakeholders in the transport sector to come on board and negotiate for the regulation of reasonable fares.
The issue of fares seems to be troublesome but kombi operators are saying they can put this under control. Will government pay attention to their proposals? What is it going to take for government to finally realise the flaws in the urban transport management system?
Way forward
It appears managers at the public utility have to do more to put their house in order or risk losing the confidence of commuters.
After a spate of road accidents involving public transporters, Rwanda restricted the speed of commuter buses. This reduced the accident frequency rate by half. Perhaps Zimbabwe should do the same, starting with Zupco.
The Ministry of Transport must check on the fitness of Zupco drivers before they embark on journeys.
Stakeholders have called for a re-look at Zupco’s safety mechanisms and hiring of adequately trained and experienced drivers. Perhaps even have its own driver-training school.
At its peak, Zupco operated more than 450 routes, with a fleet of 1 200 buses. It was the favourite mode of transport for both rural and urban commuters as it adhered to strict timetables.
It also had an effective, time-saving ticketing system. The de-regulation of the urban transport system marked the downfall of the company as it failed to compete with private buses and commuter omnibuses, resulting in the dwindling of its market share. Nhau/Indaba
