adminCharlotte Musarurwa – Municipal Reporter
Over 7 000 unregistered commuter omnibuses operating in Harare will be grounded starting today after their owners failed to secure route permits before yesterday’s deadline.
Last month, Harare City Council set up a holding bay on Coventry Road where commuter omnibus crews park before picking commuters in the Central Business District and ferrying them to their respective destinations.
The system — tailored to reduce congestion in the CBD — requires crews to produce a route permit, motor vehicle insurance certificate, tax certificate and an operator’s licence to enter the bay.
Council, however, gave those without route permits until yesterday to register and up to 40 applications were being submitted daily.
Over 14 000 commuter omnibuses are operating, yet only 7 220 are registered.
According to the City of Harare Department of Urban Planning report of 2012, more than 4 550 individuals are registered as omnibus owners.
Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi said all unregistered commuter omnibuses will be grounded.
“The City hopes all operators took heed of the exercise to register their kombis. After September 20, all unregistered kombis will not be allowed to do business in Harare.
“. . .This year, 2 638 applications have been received. A total of 1 291 new applications were approved while 1 214 were renewed. A total of 133 are pending because they do not have adequate documents.”
However, Greater Harare Commuter Omnibus Operators’ Association secretary-general Mr Ngoni Katsvairo said most operators were still to receive permits despite applying weeks ago.
Mr Katsvairo said his association would soon engage council.
“Initially, council said it was going to issue permits as soon as the holding bay started operating. However, nothing has been done since. Operators are still holding on to their receipts.
“We do not understand why they invited operators to register and yet they knew very well that they would not issue the permits.”
Mr Gwindi, however, said operators who planned to service routes whose omnibuses pick and drop commuters at Chinhoyi Street Bus Terminus were the only applicants who did not receive permits since the rank — popularly known as “Copacabana” — was full.
Government and council are working on reducing traffic congestion in the city centre following a massive rise in vehicle volumes. The holding bay system aims to control the flow of intra-city public vehicles by enforcing passenger pick-up and drop-off regulations.
Municipal police have so far impounded 2 300 commuter omnibuses and pirate taxis operated by defiant crews whose bosses have since approached the High Court seeking reprieve.
Council is mandated to either approve or reject route permit applications, while the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development issues the permits.
Regarding Government’s plan to phase out urban commuter omnibuses, Transport and Infrastructure Development Deputy Minister Petronella Kagonye said: “As a ministry, we are working according to policy. We said kombis will be phased out naturally through the introduction of a mass bus transport system.
“The ministry is ready to engage (interested) private players, and we are going to do this in all cities, depending on demand.”
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