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Masvingo Correspondent
THERE was chaos in Masvingo Central Business District yesterday when commuter omnibus operators woke up to find their rank closed. The kombis had to drop commuters anywhere in the city centre creating congestion. The situation was also worsened by municipality police who started clamping commuter omnibuses found dropping passengers at undesignated points.
Commuter omnibus crews who spoke to Chronicle expressed dismay over the move to suddenly close the terminus at TM Supermarket.
“We will continue parking anywhere we want until the council gives us a rank. I know if we pressurise them they will eventually correct the anomaly,” said Mr Jeremiah Chuma, a driver.
Mr Timothy Makanda, another driver, said while they were aware that using the terminus was on a temporary basis, council should have provided them with an alternative.
“We know that the terminus we were using belongs to TM Supermarket and we were using it just on temporary basis. However, it is the duty of the council to rectify the problem by providing us with an alternative terminus,” he said.
Efforts to contact Mayor Alderman Femius Chakabuda over the issue were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.
But a senior official who requested anonymity said the council was aware of the problem and something was being done.
“We are fully aware of what is happening. From the beginning, the terminus has never been council property. It belongs to TM Supermarket and they informed us long back that they would turn it into a car park for their customers.
“We respect their decision to take over although it is an unfortunate scenario especially for the kombis,” he said.
“We have an alternative area that we had reserved for the kombis. We are presently working on a few loose ends before we give it to them.”
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