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Freeman Razemba Senior Reporter
ZUPCO has reached an agreement with local transport operators that could help end transport challenges that have been bedevilling commuters in Harare and other major cities in the past few weeks.
Among the agreements reached, private buses plying long distances will now first ferry urban commuters to work during the morning rush hour before they travel to their normal routes.
In the evening, the same long route buses will be committed to servicing commuters during the evening peak hours.
The addition of long distance buses is a welcome respite for commuters who have been enduring long periods queuing for public transport and in desperation, have fallen prey to pirate transport operators who charge extortionate fares.
There are thousands of private buses that service long-distance routes and their addition to the Zupco fleet is expected to ease the transport challenges.
In an interview yesterday, Zimbabwe Passenger Transport Organisation chairman Mr Sam Nanhanga confirmed the developments.
“As private players, we have reached an agreement and decided that every morning, our buses plying the highways should first ferry passengers before they ply the long distances and this will also be the same during the evenings when these buses have returned to urban areas.
“As bus operators we want to complement the few buses that are in urban areas to ease the transport challenges being faced,” he said.
Mr Nanhanga also said they are in support of the police operation targeting pirate taxis and mushikashika and applauded the ZRP for ensuring that there is sanity on the country’s roads.
So far, more than 7 362 motorists have been arrested under the operation code-named ‘Respect Other Road Users/ Remekedzai Vamwe Vanoshandisa Mugwagwa/ Hloniphani Abanye Abasebenzisa Umgwaqo’.
The ongoing operation is aimed at bringing order on the roads and eliminating chaos brought by vehicles without number plates, those driven against the flow of traffic, going through red robots, and other misdemeanors.
To provide reliable transport, Zupco acting chief executive officer Mr Everisto Madangwa told The Herald that 40 buses were injected on Monday last week while 25 more were fed into the system on Tuesday this week, taking the number of Zupco buses plying Harare routes to 445 and a similar number of affiliated kombis.
However, commuters still face challenges to travel to and from the city centre.
The situation worsened from Monday when many people needed to travel to various pick-up points ahead of school opening, while others needed to accompany their children to their schools.
On Monday, some bus drivers said the high demand for transport could have been occasioned by the fact that it was a public holiday and most transporters had given their staffers an off day hoping it would not be too busy.
But there were reports that Zupco-affiliated kombis had partially withdrawn their services due to non-payment of their dues on time by the company.
There were also concerns that the transport operators wanted Zupco to review their daily takings.
In a statement, Zupco management said the challenges faced by commuters have been due to the withdrawal of franchised vehicles.
“In the past, we have faced similar problems but we continue to listen and correct so that in the end we all fulfil our mandate to serve the commuting public,” reads the statement.
Zupco said it was working tirelessly to come up with solutions to ensure the firm returns services back to normalcy.
“We remain committed to providing you with safe, affordable, and reliable travel. In the meantime, we have also approached other transporters including the NRZ to increase their support to alleviate the plight of passengers”.
President Mnangagwa recently ordered Zupco to put in place an efficient transport system that will improve the ease of movement for workers and address transport challenges during peak hours.
He said concerns among the commuting public on inordinately long periods spent in bus queues had given rise to unscrupulous transporters in the form of mushikashika, which not only rip off the public, but in some cases, some passengers have been raped, robbed, and even killed by the illegal operators.
Online Reporter