The Sunday Mail
Vusumuzi Dube
Bulawayo Bureau
PRIVATE companies requiring transportation for their workers can only hire buses registered under the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) franchise, while private commuter omnibus operators will not be allowed back into operation, Government has said.
Local Government and Public Works Minister, July Moyo told our Bulawayo Bureau that the removal of private kombis from the roads will help bring back sanity onto the country’s roads.
Private-owned commuter omnibuses were banned from the roads when the initial national lockdown was introduced on March 30 last year as part of measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Last week scores of commuters in Bulawayo were left stranded after police impounded vehicles that were operating in defiance of these regulations.
Company staff buses and vehicles hired to ferry school children that were not registered under Zupco were not spared.
In an interview on the sidelines of the handover and launch of the Local Authorities Database System (LADS) and Ward Profiles for Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in Bulawayo, Minister Moyo said companies should only hire Zupco registered vehicles to ferry their staff.
“Zupco affiliated commuter omnibuses are the only ones allowed to operate, that is the policy in place and it has not changed,” he said.
“Anybody who have their own buses and want to operate must go and register with Zupco.
“This is to ensure that we manage urban companies through one company but with many owners.
“All we are saying is that we want to bring sanity to the whole system.
“Even companies that want to hire buses for their workers should do so through Zupco alone and not hire private companies.”
Minister Moyo said Government and ICT experts at the Harare Institute of Technology had introduced a high-tech system to manage all the Zupco affiliated vehicles.
“It is now easy to monitor all these vehicles.
“Authorities can do this by just using their mobile phones through this system.
“This is what we are pushing for when we talk about effectively managing our vehicles.”
