admintransport ministry in the world. Small towns are not much of a problem. In Marondera or Bindura or Gwanda people can walk if necessary, and many do.
Once we come to Harare, Chitungwiza (largely because jobs are in Harare) and Bulawayo public transport becomes critical to the productivity of every business and every worker. Even in our smaller cities, such as Mutare, Gweru or Masvingo, walkers are a minority, although there are some; but in big cities they are unusual. And it is the size of the city that is important, not the wealth. Even in big cities such as New York, and these days Shanghai must be much the same, where most families can afford a car, there simply are not enough roads or parking spaces for most people to use cars.
They have to use trains, metros or buses. In poorer countries alternatives sink down to walking or public transport for most, and Zimbabwe is in that boat.
People talk of the “good old days” when there was an efficient bus service in Harare. But we need to remember that in the heyday of HUOC, which eventually became part of Zupco, most people lived in Mbare and Highfield and worked in the industrial sites or the city centre.
You did not have to be a dollar billionaire or a genius to move that majority efficiently and cheaply.
Even low-density suburbs were fairly easy to service when most people there lived in the inner ring and Harare Drive was mostly in the bush. And in the “good old days” diesel was cheap, around US15c/litre.
So the “good old days” have gone forever.
And Harare is in a worse position than any other Zimbabwean city, and not just because of its size. Some really weird town planning decisions in the 1970s made things a lot worse, as a glance at Bulawayo shows.
Bulawayo’s colonial city council defied the RF planners and built high-density suburbs close to the city centre and the industrial sites, with three good arterial roads penetrating these areas as obvious bus routes.
Despite all its economic woes that city has continued to expand since independence, so some people have to live further away from the city centre, but it is still far easier to get to and from work there than Harare.
Harare’s colonial council embraced the RF (and in fact had a significant pool of councillors who thought the RF were too soft). So most high-density suburbs were built more than 10km from the city centre, and large numbers were forced to live “across the river” in Chitungwiza.
Areas closer to the city centre were reserved for industry and commerce, ensuring that these were spread out everywhere and so making transport a two-bus affair for many. We have tens of thousands who live in Chitungwiza and work in the office and shop complexes of Mount Pleasant and Borrowdale, or who live in Tafara and work in Coventry Road, or who live in Kuwadzana and work in Msasa.
The tiny gaps left at independence were quickly filled by Sunningdale and Warren Park, but that was all that could be done. What Harare inherited it has to cope with. So big city and bad planning make it hard to move around efficiently and cheaply. Even the Borrowdale factory owner needs almost an hour to get to his factory in his Benz, slowed down by the thousands trying to get from near his factory to work in Borrowdale.
Government now wants to upgrade public transport encouraging the use of bigger and newer buses. If buses were cheap this would help a lot. But they are not.
A bus operator, or bus company, using big modern buses would have to charge high fares to cover capital costs, and these would be even higher at the start since there would be no older fleet to inherit.
Few could afford those fares.
The present myriad of kombis can charge US$1 or less simply because owners buy second-hand mini-buses and drive them until they collapse. Capital costs are low.
So what can be done? The bus policy can only be a long-term goal. Our kombi system is going to have to bear the brunt for some years.
So we need to plan to make it more efficient.
The police have made it safer, now the planners, with bus lanes, with the long-discussed termini, with better routing and with more defined stops, have to do their bit. Our options are limited and have to start with what we have, not want we want but cannot afford.
Online Reporter