Bulawayo mayor caught offside

Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni last Thursday attracted the wrath of residents when he insinuated that Zupco buses deployed in the city as a solution to residents’ transport woes were operating illegally.

The Mayor who is a member of the opposition, MDC-Alliance wrote on his Facebook social media page, alleging that the Zupco buses were in conflict with the city’s transport policy. He further stated that the local authority was not consulted when the buses were introduced.

“For the record, the introduction of handful Zupco buses in the name of the so-called mass public transport system, by the central government without consulting the city of Bulawayo is in conflict with the city’s own elaborate transport policy and master plan. Our town planners had not anticipated and did not allocate any bays to Zupco for picking and dropping passengers,” reads the post.

However, the post attracted mixed feelings among some of his followers with a majority blasting the city father for projecting himself as anti-progress.

“The mayor should not project himself as anti-programs which benefit the masses who voted them into office. He should just work around the clock to accommodate the buses, failure which will appear like the mayor is playing politics with people’s pockets, whereby everything which projects goodwill on the part of Government should be shot down regardless of who benefits from the programme,” wrote one Dingani Sithole.

Other followers blasted the Mayor’s mention of the city’s master plan, saying if the plan had no provision for buses it was flawed and should not have been endorsed by the local authority.

“It’s sad to hear such a statement. Surely all properly managed cities in the world run an efficient public bus transport system. It’s sad to hear the Mayor saying the city planner recognises those three (commuter omnibus) associations run by well-known thugs. I would have expected the Mayor talking of master plan to introduce an efficient bus system run by the city council.

“A good City Mayor will under normal circumstances take advantage of anything relieving residents and work on those. Is it difficult to create space for those buses Mr Mayor? The million dollar question Mr Mayor is who is benefiting from those old buses, isn’t it your residents who have been subjected to extortion by your so called all weather operators? Allow competition the consumer benefits. Let those buses also come down to 50 cents,” wrote one Bulisani Ncube.

Nomagugu Ncube wrote; “A serious transport town planner would have involved city buses in their town plans. Buses are the way to go if the council is well run.Study transport sector from other well run cities with similar population size to Bulawayo and you will see the pros. We cannot rely on private entities who are about profit. Have you engaged residents on what they prefer and how we could maximise the efficiency of these buses?”

In responding to some of the concerns raised, Clr Mguni said as a planning authority they could not just have buses being introduced from nowhere bragging that their “all-weather partners”, commuter omnibus operators had since reduced kombi fares.

“We are a planning authority. You don’t wake up to the sound of old buses without consultation. In fact as of today (Thursday) our all-weather operators have agreed to charge a $1 per trip,” he said.

However, the mayor had some who were in support of his opinion, saying the Zupco buses should have been introduced in consultation with the local authority.

The reintroduction of Zupco buses to operate in the urban areas has been a welcome move after commuter omnibus operators had at one point increased their fares to as much as $3 a trip. When the buses started operating kombis eventually slashed their fares to $1.

BULAWAYO Mayor Councillor Solomon Mguni last Thursday attracted the wrath of residents when he insinuated that Zupco buses deployed in the city as a solution to residents’ transport woes were operating illegally.

The Mayor who is a member of the opposition, MDC-Alliance wrote on his Facebook social media page, alleging that the Zupco buses were in conflict with the city’s transport policy. He further stated that the local authority was not consulted when the buses were introduced.

“For the record, the introduction of handful Zupco buses in the name of the so-called mass public transport system, by the central government without consulting the city of Bulawayo is in conflict with the city’s own elaborate transport policy and master plan. Our town planners had not anticipated and did not allocate any bays to Zupco for picking and dropping passengers,” reads the post.

However, the post attracted mixed feelings among some of his followers with a majority blasting the city father for projecting himself as anti-progress.

“The mayor should not project himself as anti-programs which benefit the masses who voted them into office. He should just work around the clock to accommodate the buses, failure which will appear like the mayor is playing politics with people’s pockets, whereby everything which projects goodwill on the part of Government should be shot down regardless of who benefits from the programme,” wrote one Dingani Sithole.

Other followers blasted the Mayor’s mention of the city’s master plan, saying if the plan had no provision for buses it was flawed and should not have been endorsed by the local authority.

“It’s sad to hear such a statement. Surely all properly managed cities in the world run an efficient public bus transport system. It’s sad to hear the Mayor saying the city planner recognises those three (commuter omnibus) associations run by well-known thugs. I would have expected the Mayor talking of master plan to introduce an efficient bus system run by the city council.

“A good City Mayor will under normal circumstances take advantage of anything relieving residents and work on those. Is it difficult to create space for those buses Mr Mayor? The million dollar question Mr Mayor is who is benefiting from those old buses, isn’t it your residents who have been subjected to extortion by your so called all weather operators? Allow competition the consumer benefits. Let those buses also come down to 50 cents,” wrote one Bulisani Ncube.

Nomagugu Ncube wrote; “A serious transport town planner would have involved city buses in their town plans. Buses are the way to go if the council is well run.Study transport sector from other well run cities with similar population size to Bulawayo and you will see the pros. We cannot rely on private entities who are about profit. Have you engaged residents on what they prefer and how we could maximise the efficiency of these buses?”

In responding to some of the concerns raised, Clr Mguni said as a planning authority they could not just have buses being introduced from nowhere bragging that their “all-weather partners”, commuter omnibus operators had since reduced kombi fares.

“We are a planning authority. You don’t wake up to the sound of old buses without consultation. In fact as of today (Thursday) our all-weather operators have agreed to charge a $1 per trip,” he said.

However, the mayor had some who were in support of his opinion, saying the Zupco buses should have been introduced in consultation with the local authority.

The reintroduction of Zupco buses to operate in the urban areas has been a welcome move after commuter omnibus operators had at one point increased their fares to as much as $3 a trip. When the buses started operating kombis eventually slashed their fares to $1.