Wenslus Murape
MINISTER of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Felix Mhona has announced new restrictions on kombis, reducing route permits from current 120km radius to 60km, and directing that they all be fitted with speed limiting and monitoring devices.
These developments follow a comprehensive review of the current radius-based restrictions for kombis amid a sharp rise in fatal accidents caused by errant and speeding kombis.
Kombis have consistently been on wrong in the fatal accidents they are involved in on the country’s highways. Another menace has been the illegal mushika-shika vehicles, which are always speeding and overladen.
Under the new measures, all 26-seater kombis and below, will be restricted to offer transport services within a radius of distances not exceeding 60 km.
This means there shall not be any permits for kombis travelling from Harare to Bindura as the official distance is 66km.
There shall not be any permits for kombis seeking to ply the Harare-Marondera route as the official distance is 73km.
From Harare, the routes that will remain legal under the new measures include Norton (45km), Goromonzi (41km), Domboshava (30km), Dema (41km), Mazowe (40km) and Glendale (60km).
One of the reasons given when these kombis are involved in accidents is that the drivers will be chasing revenue targets which require them to do many trips per day hence they are always speeding to cover enough ground within their operating hours.
That means the longer the route the riskier the kombis get and that is probably one of the reasons informing the ministry’s new measures.
In their desperate bid to fill up and hit the road, these kombis are notorious for causing traffic jams along busy roads.
For instance, Sam Nujoma (still popularly known as Second Street) is difficult to navigate due to kombis and even big buses loading passengers between the NSSA headquarters and Josiah Tongogara. Even haulage trucks join in, especially after business hours as they jostle for passengers heading to places like Bindura and Mt Darwin.
So even before the introduction of new measures, the bigger challenge has been the violation of existing rules and regulations.
The illegal pick-up points are known but both buses and kombis park and wait for passengers while at times there will be police details nearby.
Enforcement is one of the biggest challenge we currently face in many areas, which has resulted in most measures not achieving anything tangible.
Officially, Mushika-shika vehicles are banned from providing public transport services but in Harare they actually have ranks.
Examples are the City-Chikurubi, City-Inkomo Barracks, City-Avondale, City-Mt Pleasant among other routes that wilfully block traffic yet there is no enforcement to get them off the roads. Every business day, Jason Moyo is congested from around 4pm because of these Mushika-Shika vehicles but the chaos continues.
So unless there is enforcement of measures, our roads shall remain a jungle.
Online Reporter