6 000 kombi’s illegal on Harare roads

and volume of existing ones on particular routes.

A senior city official from the urban planning department Mrs Judith Majegu confirmed the chaos in the city traffic and transportation division last week during a combined press briefing by kombi operators, the city, the Environmental Management Agency and Environment Africa.

The press briefing was to apprise the media on efforts to keep Harare clean.
“We have to admit, the city is in chaos now,” she said.

She said out of the 10 000 kombis only 4 000 were registered with the city.
She said the 10 bus ranks in the city centre were designed “for pick and drop of passengers” but were now being wrongly used as parking bays by kombi operators — a development that was causing congestion.

Mrs Majegu said from next week kombis plying the western suburbs routes and parts of the northwestern areas would be ranking at the new Coventry Holding Bay.
“We are working on the holding bays. We hope it will be operational by next week.

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“Kombis using Market Square and Speke Avenue would be ranking there,” she said.
The holding bays have been on the cards for a long time with the city complaining at one time that it had run out of funds to develop the structure.

Mrs Majegu said immediate results would be seen along Chinhoyi Street which would be decongested as soon the bays start working.
She said the city was finalising an arrangement to get additional land to build holding bays for kombis using the Charge Office and Fourth Street ranks.

“We are in the process of acquiring land for more holding bays,” she said.
Town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi said kombis had been identified as a critical vehicle to campaign for a cleaner Harare.

He said kombis were now fitted with bins and on selected days operators would campaign against littering and urge commuters to use bins to dispose waste.
EMA spokesman Mr Rambwayi Mapako said litterbugs and kombis without bins would be fined US$20.

He said the law stipulated that all public passenger vehicles should have bins.
Deputy spokesman of the Greater Harare Commuter Omnibus Operators Mr Ngoni Katsvairo said operators had agreed to the arrangement.