…move passengers to Mucheke and we follow
RUTENDO CHIRUME
MASVINGO-Long distance bus operators loading at undesignated pick-up points in the CBD have vowed to continue doing so as long as passengers have not been moved to Mucheke Rank.
The operators have said they will continue to play cat and mouse with the Municipal Police because going to Mucheke Rank as directed by the city fathers will drive them out of business since there are no passengers using the dilapidated facility.
Masvingo City Council recently unleashed municipality police on the long distance bus operators breaking the law, but the situation has not changed as they are still picking up passengers in the CBD in defiance of the directive which they said is not economic.
Clamped buses are supposed to pay a fine of USD$40 while small vehicles are charged half the penalty.
A government owned ZUPCO driver who was now loading along Shuvai Mahofa Street after relocating from Croco Motors where he used to load said the order by the local authority will not work unless they make sure no private motorists will be allowed to pick up passengers at the undesignated points.
“We will not move to Mucheke Rank because there is no business for us there. We come to town because that is where people are.
“The local authority is trying to make money from the fees that we would be paying for loading from the rank, but passengers must move to the rank first and we follow because our business is to ferry them from where they are to their destinations.
“Instead of chasing us away they should rather work on moving the people first otherwise we will not move to Mucheke Rank unless our grievances have been addressed,” said the source.
Another driver who identified himself as Mambo Timmy echoed the same sentiments and said the Council should rather look for other strategies that will make passengers move to Mucheke Rank like opening grocery wholesale shops like N. Richards at the rank.
“People refuse to move to Mucheke Rank because it will be expensive for them to shop here and board a bus there. People do their shopping in town so they should open wholesale shops and grocery shops at Mucheke Rank so that the people have no reason to come here.
“We have tried to move to Mucheke Rank before and it did not work. You will not get more than five passengers at the rank.
“While we may want to load from Mucheke Rank, private motorists to Harare or Bulawayo will outsmart us they will have a free reign as they are not obliged to go to Mucheke Rank.
“Going to Mucheke Rank is a waste of time for us and passengers at the same time. Instead they should create specific loading points in town where buses can operate from to create order in the CBD,” he said.
An outspoken tout named Jassie who operates from Croco Motors pick up point said the Police and local authority have failed to move passengers to Mucheke because they get kick backs from bus operators.
Masvingo City Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa acknowledged that it will be difficult to move buses to rank despite the efforts being put by the local authority.
“We hope the construction of the new road will go a long way as public transport will not be allowed to pass through the CBD.
“The main road will cut through Chimusana Bridge and that way buses will be forced to go to Mucheke Rank since their usual illegal roading points will be closed.
“We are counting on this to totally clean the city which is congested with bus terminuses all over,” said Mukaratirwa.
