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Leroy Dzenga Features  : Correspondent

Harare’s public transport system has been a mess or organised chaos, as some now call it. Lawlessness has become the norm – the culprits the commuters and kombis. Struggling with ever increasing chaos and congestion at the Speke Avenue commuter omnibus terminus (Copacabana), city fathers decided that enough was enough.Months of consultations and deliberations saw the construction of the Coventry Road holding bay, meant to mitigate the chaos.

The project, commissioned in 2014, gobbled $500 000.

In the run up to its commissioning, optimists saw it as a magic bullet to “downtown” Harare’s congestion woes.

However, roughly two years on, the holding bay is slowly turning into yet another white elephant.

Kombis continue to shun the holding bays while the illegal pick-up points and mushikashika flourish.

For example, visits to the holding bay the whole of last week, between 11am and 3pm, which are non peak hour times and also when the holding bays are supposed to be full of kombis, told another story.

Less than 10 kombis could be seen at the holding bay during these less busy times.

Yet a few kilometres from the holding bay, chaos unfolded at some of the notorious mushikashika pickup points at corner Jason Moyo and Chinhoyi Street, corner Kwame Nkrumah and Chinhoyi Street, Corner Cameron and Speke Avenue, Mbuya Nehanda and Speke intersection, Corner Jason Moyo Avenue and Mbuya Nehanda Street as well as the one at Total service station corner Samora Machel Avenue and Chinhoyi Street just to name a few.

These spots are continuously occupied by kombis throughout the day with their numbers ironically increasing around peak hour, the time the holding bay’s efficiency was supposed to come in handy.

But, what is wrong with the holding bays, what is council doing wrong, why do kombi drivers shun them?

The drivers who are supposed to use the facility say they have come up with a litany of concerns against the supposed custodians of order.

Maxwell Tatu, a kombi driver plying the City-Kuwadzana route, complained of the ill-treatment they are getting from council officials manning the holding bays.

“The holding bay was a good idea but council sabotaged it themselves. In the first days, people used to comply but council attendants became corrupt,” he alleged.

He claimed attendants are paid $1 to gain access to the rank without waiting at the holding bay.

“This leads to serious inconvenience for most of us who would have spent time parked at the holding bay waiting our turn.”

Another driver, Malvin Rwizi, who services the City-Dzivarasekwa route, said the holding bays were a “disservice in these harsh times.”

“While council may find it ideal to send kombis to the holding bay, it makes no monetary sense. By day end you need to have the owner’s money, would have paid the police and bought fuel,” Rwizi claimed.

He said footing all these obligations is difficult if one “loses hours parked out of town awaiting a phone call.”

A conductor who preferred to remain anonymous said the holding bay had never served its purpose.

“That place is the reason why unofficial pick and drop spots are increasing in Harare. A rank disk is required to gain entry into the holding bay and this shut out most pirate taxis so we had to resort to mushikashika to survive.”

He said most buses were using Chinhoyi street because council traffic police have been lax of late.

The holding bay has also affected ordinary people.

Netsai, a vendor who sells fruits and snacks at the Copacabana rank, said business dwindled at the time the Coventry holding bay was functional.

“During the few months the holding bay was being used, business was tough. We had to follow them there as sales had fallen drastically.

“The disadvantage with being stationed at Coventry was that you only relied on selling to drivers and conductors unlike here at Copacabana where you also sell to ordinary pedestrians,” Netsai said.

Kombi owners have also been affected by the facility.

Godwish Tandawa, who owns a fleet of commuter omnibuses, was totally against the idea.

“The idea was not viable because there is no order in town.

A vehicle that spends time parking at the bay does not cash anything meaningful,” he said.

He added: “For the flow of traffic to be controlled we need to go back to the old system where there were designated places for kombis from each suburb. Making Copacabana a collective rank breeds chaos.”

He said commuter omnibus operators were not the only people responsible for congestion in downtown Harare.

“When we used the holding bay the kombis used to cash $40 because you would make only two or three trips because of the chaos you would find waiting for you at Copacabana.

“It made little business sense because when they go directly into the rank they cash in $80.”

Experts have expressed mixed feelings on the holding bay.

Zimbabwe Institute of Regional and Urban Planning president Percy Toriro lauded the principle but raised concern on the execution.

“The Coventry holding bay facility has not been successful in de-congesting downtown CBD. This is primarily due to the fact that the implementation of the idea was rushed.

“There was need to have four of these holding bays at the same time to ease traffic inflows into the CBD, one for the southern suburbs, one for the eastern suburbs, one for the northern suburbs and the Coventry holding bay for the Western suburbs,” he said.

He said there was however room for improvement in its utilisation.

He called for improved co-ordination between attendants at inner city ranks and those stationed at the holding bays.

He further urged council to engage all stakeholders and experts in future decision-making for similar projects.

Harare City Council acting corporate communications manager Mr Michael Chideme dismissed reports that the holding bays were being under-utilised.

“The holding bay has been a very useful transport management tool in managing congestion and we have recorded significant improvements at the Copacabana terminus,” Chideme said.

He said council had introduced the “bus only” lanes for commuter omnibuses.

“This has made the flow of traffic a lot easier because at one point it had become difficult to drive across Chinhoyi Street due to congestion,” he said.

But, despite Mr Chideme’s claims, most bus-only lanes in Harare are no longer visible and private motorists and kombi drivers use the same lanes.

Chideme, however, encouraged those with evidence of corruption at these parking bays to report the perpetrators who would be dealt with sternly.

“We expect to have more of these facilities for all the other ranks but our only hindrance is the limited funds,” Chideme said.

Council is engaging kombi operators to encourage them to utilise the Coventry holding bay.

Harare seeks to achieve global city status by 2025, a task which is going to be difficult if no practical solutions are made to sanitise the traffic in its central business district.

 

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