adminThat is so because at holiday time, roads in this country turn bloodier, while hard-hearted transporters fleece travellers with an uncanny mindlessness. What is, however, more dastardly about the latter is that public transporters defy lawful authority with a blatant, get-lost impunity as also witnessed in the just ended Easter holidays.
On Easter’s eve, the Government issued a stern warning of a serious crackdown on public transporters who took advantage of people’s desperation to celebrate the holiday away from their places of residence with friends and relatives by cutting huge “pounds of flesh” from vulnerable holiday makers in a bid to tidy themselves over in leaner times.
The Minister of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Nicholas Goche said transporters who increased their fares before or during the holidays would have their licences and road permits cancelled by the State.
What happened on the roads during Easter was not short of the transporters’ daredevil attitudes as in their defiance of the minister’s warning, they appeared to dare him to implement his warning as though, in their estimation, he or the Government that he represents were a toothless bulldog.
Long-distance buses, including State-run Zupco, went all the way extorting double fares in some cases, from helpless travellers in spite of the Government’s warning that defiant operators would come to grief when caught in the act.
This writer knows of a witness, a close relative, who forked out $8 on Zupco from Gweru to Bulawayo, a journey for which that bus company normally levies $4 dollars and mini buses charge a regular $5 which was reportedly doubled during the holiday.
Another witness, also a family member, paid $10 instead of the usual $5 on a minibus travelling from Bulawayo to Zvishavane on Good Friday and was made to pay the same fare on a return journey on Easter Monday.
As if this was not enough, the witness, who asked that she not be named, was also made to part with $15 for luggage lighter than her 45kg weight four days later.
It is possible that due to human depravity many other motorists conveying holiday travellers to their destinations may also have made a killing by levying extortionate fares, aware like public passenger transporters, that similar warnings by Government officials in the past of punishment for abusing their licences and permits, were not rigorously policed to enforce them.
At any rate, bus travellers were compelled to surrender their tickets when disembarking at their destination and who knows — the culprits might deny any wrong doing, having dispossessed travellers of the tickets as vital evidence of overcharging.
What should be particularly worrisome to every law-abiding citizen of this country and to the Government in particular is the cascade effect of the brazen disregard for lawful authority as demonstrated by passenger transporters to other structures of Zimbabwean society.
Under the circumstances, would it surprise anyone if the transporters and commuters dismiss any future Government warning as nothing but the “usual familiar noise from that side?”
But in fairness to Minister Goche and to law-abiding passenger transporters, members of the public deserve the right to know how many transporters lost their permits and licences for violating the Government’s warning against overcharging travellers.
Then there is a question of tyre bursts that are occurring with a frightening frequency on Zimbabwean roads and taking a heavy toll on lives as a result.
Some blame transporters for using retreads on their vehicles because these are cheaper than brand new tyres yet they crack under the weight of over loads for which transporters are often indicted.
While this might be true to some extent, sources close to dealers in motor vehicle tyres largely blame imports for their incompatibility with local weather and road conditions, while they may be cheaper than the tyres made in Zimbabwe.
Sources close to Dunlop, Zimbabwe’s tyre manufacture, say while comparatively more expensive than imported tyres, their products are more durable as they are hand- made and will stand all kinds of weather and road conditions in this country.
A “”Dunlop reject”, the sources say may for instance, have the name “Dunlop” misprinted while the structure of the product is resolute and reliable, unlike tyres imported from somewhere in Southern Africa “where they are made by machines” and fail under the heat and rugged road conditions in this country.
On the other hand, the source said, tyres at Dunlop are “made by hand” using old moulds and are even exported to markets where for instance, heavy duty tyres are needed for say difficult terrain in war situations.
The lives of passengers must be protected by compelling public passenger transporters to use on their vehicle tyres whose durability will guarantee the safety of travellers.
As things stand now, commuter omnibus operators particularly appear more driven by a desire to smile all the way to the bank even after their vehicles have left a trail of blood in the slaughter of passengers that has become frighteningly common on our roads.
This writer is not making a call for a ban on imported tyres nor for a single local tyre manufacturer to enjoy a monopoly in that area either as the powers-that-be know better how to proceed in order to safeguard the travelling public.
If, however, our people must commute Adam and Eve style while those in authority work out the parameters for taming the beasts on our roads to make travel a lot safer and more enjoyable, so be it.
Online Reporter