RECENT efforts by the Harare City Council (HCC) to decongest the central business district (CBD) by closing most commuter omnibus bus ranks in the city have reportedly failed to achieve the desired results as they have caused more congestion at the few remaining ranks.
REPORT BY VENERANDA LANGA/MOSES MATENGA
Parking bays at Copacabana, Market Square and Fourth Street have now turned into a jungle with kombi drivers fighting for the little available space and at times blocking most feeder roads that pass through the ranks.
When NewsDay toured the four ranks yesterday, hundreds of kombis could be seen almost piling on each other.
As a result of the confusion, the Transport ministry yesterday said it will meet all players in a bid to restore normalcy in the capital.
Transport and Infrastructural Development deputy minister Morgan Komichi yesterday said his ministry will soon engage HCC and kombi operators to address problems associated with overcharging, flouting of traffic laws and poor road signage.
“I am going to meet the Harare City Council and the Commuter Omnibus Association so that we understand their challenges, and also present the people’s challenges to them,” Komichi said.
“Commuter omnibus operators are known as roguish, reckless people who do not care about the well-being of their passengers, and in most cases they flout road instructions and overcharge when it is raining and a lot of people are left stranded,” he said.
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“We want to build a relationship between the ministry, municipality and commuter omnibus operators. The infrastructure on the roads is dilapidated and most roads are improperly marked, while commuter omnibus operators drive dangerously without law enforcement agents taking stringent actions over their actions,” Komichi said.
“There is no space here and if you park, the ZRP will come and charge you for dangerous parking. If you get somewhere where there is space to park, you have the council officials impounding your vehicle,” one operator said.
“We have no choice but to charge $1 so as to manage sharing money with the police and council, otherwise we will be forced out of business,” he added.
Another operator at the Fourth Street rank said: “We cannot survive by charging 50 cents because of the police. I ply the Dzivarasekwa route and we have to pay at most $10 along the way and if we charge 50 cents, we would have worked for nothing, that’s why we are now charging $1.”
Council spokesperson Leslie Gwindi was not immediately available for comment, but last week he said there was no turning back on decongesting the CBD.
Other operators said it was better for the local authority to come up with an open space a bit out of the CBD where kombis could be accommodated.
