Parliament has asked the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, July Moyo to issue a statement on the state of affairs in the country’s public transport sector.
This comes at a time commuters are facing challenges in getting public transport with some using unorthodox means to find their way into buses.
Government banned private commuter omnibuses and directed that they join the ZUPCO franchise however, many refused due to the terms and conditions of the franchise.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Mbizo legislator Settlement Chikwinya said the current situation had demonstrated that the ZUPCO model was no longer viable.
“Now, the lockdown regulations have been eased and it is my plea Hon. Speaker that ZUPCO has demonstrated incapacity to be able to carry every passenger. Therefore, I move that the transporters who then operated outside ZUPCO because the ZUPCO model was no longer viable, what would happen is that ZUPCO would delay in payments and paying in RTGs form which was losing value by day.
“Now that we have eased lockdown regulations, I move that perhaps the Hon. Minister of Local Government who is in charge of the ZUPCO transport system come to Parliament. He should bring a Ministerial Statement so that at least we interrogate on a Ministerial Statement where we allow these other private transporters to be able to satisfy three conditions: one -availability of transport, two – affordability and three- safe travel,” said Chikwinya
He added “as it is, people are delaying to go to their houses up to around 11 pm. People are delaying to come to work up to around 0900 to 1000 hours in the morning. Therefore, it is causing loss of production time and loss of quality time within people’s homes.”
Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda noted Chikwinya’s concern and advised that the house will convey the message to the Minister.
“Very important observation, I think His Excellency the President made that observation and indicated that the Minister of Local Government must ensure that ZUPCO buses do keep their times and so on. We will transmit your request accordingly,” said Advocate Mudenda
