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Municipal Reporter
Commuter omnibus operators want Harare City Council to amend its by-laws to ensure that kombi drivers who flout the city’s traffic regulations are fined in their personal capacity while the operator is spared. The operators argue that they are paying for the sins of their errant drivers who are not deterred by the impounding of their vehicles.

Commuter omnibuses are now being released after 14 days if impounded and owners pay storage fees ranging from US$350 to US$1 000.
Speaking during a stakeholder’s workshop at Morton Jaffray last Friday, Greater Harare Association of Commuter Operators secretary-general Mr Ngoni Katsvairo said commuter omnibus owners were paying heavily for their driver’s actions.

“The city should amend their by-laws and charge the drivers who violate the by-laws because when a vehicle is impounded it is the owner who forks out the money while the driver does not pay anything.

“He will go and look for another job after the kombi is impounded because it now takes two weeks to get it out,” he said.GHACO chairman Mr Cosmas Mbonjani said operators needed to approach the city to ensure adjustments are made to incorporate their thinking.

“We appeal to operators and their drivers to respect all council by-laws and traffic regulations, however, we will discuss the need for council to revise out-dated by-laws so that we have by-laws and policies that are pro-poor and people driven.

“We implore and urge all operators and their drivers to use the Coventry Road Holding Bay as well as any other that may be created in future in order to help ease congestion in streets and around leading to the ranks,” he said.

He said there would be need to reduce congestion in the long term through the provision of loading zones on the skirts of the CBD (adding that CBD bypass roads need to be built above one or two of the current major CBD streets and around the CBD so that traffic with no business in CBD is diverted.

Commuter omnibuses plying the southwestern suburbs-city routes are now using the Coventry Holding Bay as the council seeks to decongest the Central Business District. However, some errant drivers are still picking and dropping passengers at undesignated spots in the city.
Commuter omnibuses that pick and drop passengers at the Copacabana Terminus are obliged to use the new bays.