Zupco turnaround strategies satisfactory: Chombo

Ignatius Chombo said Zupco started operating viably after it was given the authority to charge competitive fares.
Minister Chombo said this while giving oral evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Rural and Urban Development yesterday.
Chimanimani West MP, Ms Lynette Karenyi (MDC-T) chairs the committee.
The minister said the board’s three-year strategy had begun bearing fruits as evidenced by the company’s revenue collections.
The board is chaired by Professor Chipo Dyanda.
“The performance of the board is exceptionally well, in 2011 they managed to buy 104 new buses from internally generated resources without any grant from Government,” he said.
“They have managed to turn the corner and this year they will be buying 100 more buses and another 100 more in 2013.”
He said, it was now up to the Zupco         board and management to make sure that they purchase buses amenable with rural terrain.
If they ply rural routes, Minister Chombo said, this would result in bus fares coming down to match the state company’s fares. 
The minister said the challenges Zupco was facing now were the same problems being faced by other bus operators.
He said now that most people have cars meant that the number of customers that buses used to get had significantly dropped.
The committee asked why some of the board members had served more than four terms.
They said staff at Zupco was complaining that those who served longer had become too dominant with the tendency of making arbitrary decisions.
Minister Chombo said there was nothing irregular about board members’ tenures being renewed.