The Sunday News
Debra Matabvu, Harare Bureau
GOVERNMENT has approved an upward review of hire fees for commuter omnibuses contracted under the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) franchise in a move set to immediately ease transport challenges.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development last week doubled hire fees for kombis from $10 000 to $20 300 to motivate private players to join the Zupco franchise. Negotiations for a review of hire fees for privately-owned high-volume buses are currently ongoing and will likely be completed this week.
Some privately-owned commuter omnibuses recently withdrew from the franchise citing low hire fees and a growing payment backlog. In response to the transport challenges, which are largely affecting Harare commuters, Government has drawn up a cocktail of interim measures that are set to immediately ease problems affecting the capital’s mass public transport system.
The measures include a review of the Zupco hire fees, reintroduction of express bus lanes, procuring new buses for the public transporter this month and introducing an afternoon commuter train service. This year alone, Government will purchase over 500 buses for Zupco.
In addition, plans are underway to use data from the recently concluded housing and population census to inform the deployment of coaches. The full census report will be released in the next three months. In an interview, Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo said major transit routes being constructed under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) will now have dedicated bus lanes.
“Last week’s transport challenges were mainly caused by the pulling out of commuter omnibuses under the Zupco franchise,” said Minister Moyo.
Minister July Moyo
“We have engaged Treasury and they have approved the upward review of the daily hire fees given to the kombis. So we expect the situation to normalise. We have also started engaging all stakeholders, including the Ministry of
Transport (and Infrastructural Development) and local authorities on the issue of dedicated bus lanes and streamlining roads to ensure the amount of time in transit by buses is lessened. Some of the work, which is set to bring sanity on our roads, is being done under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme.
We are also expecting an additional consignment of buses at the end of this month, which is expected to alleviate transport challenges in cities, while some of the buses will be sent to rural areas. So we have started implementing a number of strategies such as construction of infrastructure and acquiring more buses.”
Zupco acting chief executive officer Mr Evaristo Madangwa said close to 500 buses have been deployed onto Harare’s roads.
“We are gradually building capacity by using both road and rail services. Soon we are going to introduce an afternoon run for our train services. The census result soon to come out will also guide the current levels of population by place.
This will also aid in correctly aligning our transport services across the nation. In the meantime, Government is doing all in its power to assist us in procuring more buses so that we can be able to service the public. More than 500 will be delivered before end of the year.”
The new buses, he added, will be deployed to areas with high-population volumes. Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development deputy director Engineer Tatenda Pasipamire said while Harare already has dedicated bus lanes, there was no enforcement of the standing regulations.
“There are dedicated bus lanes on Seke and Robert Mugabe roads and these have been there for some time now,” he said.
“However, the lanes were not being used because there were kombis. Now that we have buses, they can be used if the authorities such as the City of Harare enforce the use of these bus lanes.”
He said the current ERRP has budgeted for the construction of express lanes. Government has also drawn up medium-tolong-term measures to improve public transportation and decongest traffic in Harare. Authorities are rolling out a three-pronged approach, which includes infrastructure development, enhancement of public transport logistics and enforcement of traffic laws.
Overall, the interventions are part of Harare’s public transport masterplan. It will first be implemented as a pilot project in Harare before being replicated in other cities.
