‘Kombis were temporary’

A former Vehicle Inspection Depot official has told The Sunday Mail that commuter omnibuses were introduced as a temporary measure to ease transport challenges in the 1990s. The VID was responsible for registering omnibuses at the time.

The official said: “The idea was to remove the Peugeot 504 ‘emergency taxies’. Then, Zupco was mainly plying rural routes and these ‘taxis’ failed to cater for fast-growing populations in most cities.

“Government then introduced more Zupco buses. A few commuter omnibuses were to complement these buses that were more of a shuttle service. However, due to lack of regulation, commuter omnibuses outnumbered the buses. They should have only helped the situation until more buses were purchased.”