adminbeing just the foot soldiers of the organised gangs that operated the terminuses and extorted up to US$20 000 a day from kombi drivers, were released on admission of guilt fines. They can and probably will, move back in as soon as the police presence lightens.
The police can be expected to provide protection for municipal staff assigned to the terminuses, as they can be expected to protect everyone, but it is unreasonable to expect them to actually man and run the terminuses.
The city council must have their own people into the terminuses with the police simply on call should there be a tout invasion or some similar emergency. The police have other duties and other people to protect.
Everyone knows the city council was caught by surprise. The police clamp down was initiated by the police after violent crime emerged at the terminuses, it was no longer just a case of people being able to argue that they were simply providing a voluntary service.
In the absence of complaints, or the absence of danger to property, life or limb, the police, who are overworked at the best of times, usually give this sort of thing a low priority. But when there is violence, or when there is a formal complaint, they act.
But the council should have been able to act swiftly when the opportunity knocked. We agree, and we argued at the time, that the actions might not be perfect. We know that the plans being drawn up for a properly-supervised public transport scheme for the city centre are not ready.
But at the very least the council should have been able to put staff into the terminuses, protected by municipal police. At the beginning they might just be counting buses and registering buses while the details of a proper management scheme were being sorted out.
That would have the double advantage that the council was at least present on its own property and that proper consultation could take place on the best way forward.
As we have argued, with everyone now knowing what could happen in the absence of any authority, even kombi drivers, not in general a group that supports regulation, were eager for something. That goodwill could have been used and still can be used, to help create a scheme that most stakeholders — drivers, passengers, the council, the police and the business community — can live with even if they do not all love the result.
Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, accepting that the buck stops on his desk, has pinpointed the failure of the senior municipal management to do anything. He is now demanding action but unless he provides constant daily pressure it might take time for the inertia to be overcome.
Excuses that there has been no substantive chief security officer for 50 months will not wash. Someone is in charge, if only in an acting capacity, of the municipal security apparatus. In any case we are sure that the ZRP would be ready to second a liaison officer to help plan a deployment of municipal guards if the council would simply make a batch of guards available.
Indeed, even if the council was fully staffed at all levels, close liaison with the ZRP at the beginning of any deployment would be vital in our opinion. And from the police point of view, assigning a middle-ranking officer for a couple of weeks to ensure that the municipal take over of terminuses proceeded smoothly would be a very effective use of its own manpower. But the council needs to ask and needs to show a commitment.
As with many municipal services a second-best response is better than no response. Water every other day is better than no water; potholes filled every two months is better than none being filled. Garbage trucks coming a day late is better than them not coming at all.
And a modest shambles in municipal-run terminuses is better, far better, than a total anarchy controlled by criminal gangs.
Our advice to Mayor Masunda is to get an emergency management team assembled right now, and then get them to assign whatever staff can be found into the terminuses this week.
He might be willing to accept responsibility for the failure so far, but he now needs to reassign a senior salaried official to take full responsibility for doing something positive.
So long as the council mans the terminuses and starts organising them, early mistakes and inefficiencies will be forgiven, at least so long as people see steady improvement.
With someone besides the mayor carrying the can and with a senior team under orders to fix the problem, the excellent council scheme of bus parking outside the city centre, unclogged terminuses inside the city centre, proper dropping off points and the like can be fleshed out and implemented bit by bit with the ZRP withdrawing from the day-to-day battle and simply being on call to enforce city regulations and prevent crime, which is their main job.
It sounds simple and in concept it is simple. The mayor just needs to put a few jobs on the line in his management team and then assess the results of action, rather than inaction.
Online Reporter