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Roselyne Sachiti Features Editor

Urban productivity is key to the growth of any economy and this requires the provision of a reliable, efficient public transport system to move labour.

In July this year, Harare City Council entered into Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with two local public transport companies to offer scheduled urban passenger transport services in the capital.

According to minutes of a full council meeting held then, the business committee said the proposed deals would be structured so that the two companies would provide 500 buses and service city routes.

Council would provide roads, termini, land for construction of depots for the buses as its equity contribution to the ventures.

In the council minutes, one of the local companies, Passenger Utility Transport Company (PUTCO), intended to source 500 sixty-five seater buses from TATA Motors of India at an estimated cost of $58 million.

This would be financed through a line of credit from India Export Import Bank, subject to the availability of sovereign guarantee from the Zimbabwean Government.

Five months down the line, the deal, just like many other ambitious ones, seems to have suffered a stillbirth.

The public transport system in Harare has become more chaotic.

Streets are becoming more dangerous leaving pedestrians and passengers asking whether the deal is just another of Harare’s fantasies instead of a serious attempt to end the traffic jungle that the city has become.

What are the major hindrances to the deals and to what extent has Government intervened?

Will Harare meet its 2020 vision with such chaos right under its nose?

It is no secret that kombi owners and other people who benefit from this public transport mess do not want to see an organised, efficient, cost-effective and customer friendly public transport system.

They have been short-changing commuters for over two decades.

Their drivers are foul-mouthed, they ill-treat commuters and hike their fares at will during peak hours or when it rains or during public holidays.

In the city centre, they have no respect for traffic regulations and drive through red traffic lights or go against one-way roads and yet they want to be left to continue to operate willy-nilly.

An example is the stretch along Robert Mugabe Road and Rezende Street anytime after 4pm.

Another hotspot is the corner of Julius Nyerere Way and Neslon Mandela at the Main Post Office, where not just “mushika shika” but motorists from Chitungwiza randomly pick up passengers, in the process blocking the pedestrian crossing and other traffic.

It is also chaos at the zebra crossing along Jason Moyo Avenue, near the Protein Shop.

Young boys tout right in the middle of the road and block other road users from passing.

Running battles with municipal police endanger the lives of pedestrians and other motorists daily.

It is clear time is now ripe for the introduction of a new and efficient service run by conventional bus companies in partnership with the local authority.

In the long run, travellers, especially the generation that did not commute on zupco and Harare United Omnibus Company buses will see the benefit of an organised transport system.

Job creation?

With an efficient public transport system, more jobs will be created where those employed by the bus operators will pay taxes to Government.

The bus companies will certainly need drivers, assistants and mechanics.

They will also hire people to keep spares and manage their inventory and drivers will be trained in customer care, the time of informality will be a thing of the past.

This will be an era where these companies will be run formally, contributing to the fiscus.

Just like in the days of zupco and United, there will be less harassment of passengers by drivers and conductors.

A breed of drivers passionate about safety, are courteous and adequately groomed is likely to emerge.

Disability

Zimbabwe is also currently starved of a public transport system that caters for people with disabilities.

For this reason, modern conventional buses that can accommodate such people are needed.

One example is in Virginia, United States, where the front area and seats of any metro bus are reserved for people with disabilities.

The best part is the buses have a ramp which lowers for easy access.

Moreover, the drivers are trained to assist and buckle up those that cannot do so on their own and also help them disembark.

Zimbabwean kombi drivers will need a great deal of retraining if they are to be considered for future employment using such facilities.

The challenge, however, is that most of these drivers will not accept the discipline required in a regular job.

Urban Tolling

Once there is an efficient public transport system, urban tolling becomes viable and a source of new revenue for the Government.

But coming up with measures to deter people from using private vehicles in the absence of a vibrant public transport system will create serious problems for the country’s economy.

The system has been successfully implemented in some cities around the world, especially in Europe because there is an efficient public transport system and the use of personal vehicles is just but a luxury.

In world cities such as London, Beijing, Stockholm and Oslo, urban tolling has led to the reduction of private vehicle use because there are alternative means of transport.

There are efficient subway systems that maintain timetables, at roughly five-minute intervals although for Zimbabwe this can be 10-15 minute intervals.

But for Zimbabwe, a country with a limping railway system, or conventional buses plying urban routes, to jump all these stages and force motorists to abandon using their personal vehicles in the absence of an efficient public transport system would create serious challenges.

Another sad reality is that Zimbabwe is urbanising at a high rate and conventional public transport has declined.

The dearth of conventional public transport has stimulated the growth of the informal public transport and private car ownership.

As the informal sector and private motorisation expands, the city’s main urban public space is increasingly more congested, impending rather than facilitating the urban population’s ability to access the required social and economic services.

Urban productivity is key to the growth of any economy and this requires the provision of a reliable, efficient public transport system to move labour.

Moreover, sustainable development is threatened when transport becomes inefficient, or is perceived as unsafe, which contributes towards a deteriorating air quality, and creates delays and bottlenecks for users.

There is need to revamp the public transport system so that it is safe and reliable.

In order to have an efficient and cost-effective scheduled passenger transport service, Harare alone needs at least 3000 buses and taking into consideration the cost per bus, there is no local commercial bank or financial institution that is willing to extend loan facilities running into tens of millions in United States dollars.

It therefore makes sense for these nascent companies to seek external finance facilities which are cheaper and are medium to long term finance facilities as opposed to the short term ones offered by local institutions.

Government also needs to assist indigenous businesspeople who are willing to bring investment that addresses day-to-day challenges faced by locals, in this instance transport.

This will also be in line with the nation’s vision of Zim-Asset “Towards an Empowered Society and a Growing Economy”.

If Zimbabwe does not have business at the forefront of driving Zim-Asset, it will remain a political problem.

Zim-Asset can bring out quick results if it is championed by industry and commerce.

If for instance delays in such deals are caused by corrupt officials, government has to act on such people who work contrary to its policies.

Some officials want to frustrate projects with the capacity to create much needed employment and can contribute to the fiscus and country’s GDP.

There is a great need to de-congest the city and the introduction of mass transit vehicles and the conventional buses are a more efficient use of road space and address a number of issues, among these being safety, congestion, pollution and economic sense for phasing them out.