admin
The recent protests in the main cities of Zimbabwe laid bare the need to have a viable public transportation system.
For a long time, we have been lulled by the liberalisation of the transport system, itself brought about largely by the failure of the State public transporter, and neglected to explore ways of re-establishing a State-backed transport system.
Now that the stayaway exposed the country on that front, it is important for the Government and other players to seriously look into ways of ensuring the travelling public and workers have access to affordable transport so that they drive production.
Many workers have welcomed the re-introduction of Zupco buses and some private players, a development that has forced kombi operators in some areas to reduce their fares due to the competition.
However, the development appears to have been a knee-jerk response to what seemed to have been a conspiracy between transporters and organisers of the stayaway.
The call from the public has been loud and clear. They want a reliable and affordable transport system and many believe the current arrangement will not be sustainable.
It is against this background that the Government should be seen to be taking the lead role in coming up with a vision and clear plan of a rollout of a public transport system to avoid future problems where people could be prevented from reporting for work due to the withdrawal of service by private transporters.
That plan should also include the capacitation of the railways so that many people can make use of the rail network within cities and between towns.
What should also inform our future plans regarding a transport system is the issue of traffic management especially with the growth of vehicular traffic that has seen many cities having to deal with congestion and rising fuel demand arising from our transportation models.
No one should dictate a transport model and neither should we adopt foreign models but we should sit down and involve all stakeholders in developing a system that works for us and will serve us for many more years sustainably, and in the process empowering our people that have invested in the transport sector.
However, what the past few days have taught us is that healthy competition is good for the consumer as it tends to eliminate monopolies and cartels, leaving the market to determine what it considers a fair price for a service.
derick.khumalo