Bus fares up to Z$20,000 after government fails to negotiate

By Tererai Karimakwenda
June 07, 2007

Bus fares in the capital went up again after government officials failed to turn up for negotiations with operators of the large conventional buses on Wednesday. Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa reports that the owners of big buses withdrew their vehicles from city routes and are targeting rural areas, because they cannot afford to charge the Z$3,000 fares stipulated by government, which is also failing to provide them with enough fuel as promised. As a result they are not making enough to buy it on the black market at exorbitant prices. Taking advantage of this development, minibus operators raised their fares to Z$20,000 per trip by Thursday. As we reported, bus fares had just gone up from an average of Z$5,000 to Z$15,000 last week.

Muchemwa said the big buses are receiving subsidised fuel from government only once a week and this is not viable. They are parked most of the time. Owners also believe government is not negotiating in good faith. Muchemwa said a recent order of cars for use by government officials is believed to include about 100 new big buses to be operated by ZUPCO. This would mean replacing some of the private buses in use now that do not meet road safety standards. Sources on the ground told our correspondent the buses are already in South Africa awaiting tariffs to be paid in foreign currency.

Muchemwa said the state run ZUPCO bus company has not operated efficiently for years now. Several government appointed executives have come and gone but accusations of mismanagement and corruption follow them. The current deputy minister of information Bright Matonga has a bribery case pending in the courts from his tenure as the chief executive officer at the struggling bus company.

Workers in the capital are already failing to make it to their jobs because they cannot pay these ever increasing bus charges. This includes crucial staff such as nurses, doctors and teachers. But government is failing to come up with permanent solutions and critics and the opposition insist nothing will change until the national political crisis is resolved.