By Farai Matiashe
President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday launched a new Zimbabwe United Passengers Company (Zupco) bus fleet, which he said would provide transport safety nets and modernise the local transport system.
Mnangagwa said government had bought the fleet from South Africa and China.
“In January, one of the issues I (said) was that we had arranged to acquire 500 buses from the Republic of Belarus, but by the time I came back there had been some incidences back home … some violence occurred. During the course of the disturbances, fare charges by kombis went up so that the commuters were affected.
“So, we decided that it was necessary to have a stable transport system both in the urban and in the countryside, but because the arrangement we had done in Europe would take longer, we decided to make preliminary arrangements which would bring about 300 buses before the 500 coming from Europe,” he said.
Mnangagwa said the initial 25 buses were ready to ply various routes and more would come by the end of the month.
“These 300, 200 from SA and 100 from China coming into the country some days ago. On a daily basis, they are arriving, some yesterday, some today and tomorrow and so on, but we believe that before the monthend all the 300 will be in Harare. But this consignment is now ready to be put into operation,” he said.
Mnangagwa added that Harare Institute of Technology technology transfer director Talon Garikayi had invented a new bus management system which would be used to track the Zupco fleet and curb corruption.
