Gift Mashoko
Government is in good books with subcontracted bus operators and always holding meetings with them contrary to social media claims that ZUPCO subcontracted buses are set to withdraw after Government’s failure to pay them, Harare Post has learnt.
In an interview with Harare Post, Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Principal Director in Fiscal Planning and Urban Transport, Daizy Mutyambizi assured commuters that the urban mass bus transport exercise is here to stay and that Government is in constant meetings with contracted bus operators with a view to improve service delivery.
“Government is in good books with the contracted bus operators and always holding meetings with them. I believe it’s the detractors, especially vemakombi who are coming in with that angle pretending to be bus operators saying Government is not paying them. We are not afraid of detractors who want to tarnish Government’s image, as long as we are doing the right thing.” she said.
Mutyambizi went on to say that the Government is in a process of capacitating ZUPCO which had not been working for a long time.
“Government is in a process of capacitating ZUPCO, fixing and replacing buses. Only when all things are in place will all areas including the rural areas be having ZUPCO buses servicing them,” she said.
She highlighted that her ministry is engaging the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development over the concerns of rural transportation which is now expensive and beyond the reach of many.
“We are in talks with Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development. We know that distances to most rural areas are long and fairly difficult to navigate. We are talking over concerns of rural transportation which has become expensive and beyond the reach of many. Discussions are underway to look into the pricing of long distance buses,” she said.
Responding to the same issue on its Twitter page, Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services posted that the ZUPCO scheme was a success and more bus operators are offering to supply buses for hire.
“The ZUPCO Scheme has been so successful that Government is inundated by Local and Foreign bus operators wanting to participate. Some are offering to supply buses for hire or direct purchase and some to independently run the service. There are close to 2300 offers of buses on these basis,” the Ministry tweeted.
ZUPCO and private public transport operators partnered in a mass transportation exercise to ease urban transport woes, which spiked following a massive hike of bus fares by privately-operated commuter omnibuses as a result of a 150% fuel price hike. The hike in bus fares had become far beyond the reach of many.
