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Elita Chikwati and Anesu Mawarire
The Harare City Council finally started directing commuter omnibuses plying the south-western suburbs city routes to the holding bay along Coventry Road yesterday after almost a week of false starts, with the implementation going on smoothly.
The holding bay, which is part of the council’s solution to ease congestion in the Central Business District, has a capacity to carry 650 omnibuses at any given time.

The arrangement helped clear congestion, especially along Chinhoyi Street which was being blocked by commuter omnibuses parked right in the middle of the road.

Officially opening the holding bay, Harare Mayor Mr Bernard Manyenyeni said there was need to “reclaim” the city’s streets which had become heavily congested.

“Our bus ranks need to retain decency and be user-friendly, especially to our fashion-conscious young women who are harassed by touts who take advantage of the chaos caused by traffic congestion,” he said.

“Congestion in the CBD has caused the flight of businesses to residential areas. We want business activity to thrive again in the CBD without fear of operators being trapped in traffic jams.”

Mr Manyenyeni urged Harare residents to work closely with the city council to decongest the city.

He said there were plans to construct additional holding bays to cater for traffic from Chitungwiza and the southern suburbs that use the Charge Office bus terminus and those from the Eastern and Northern suburbs that use Fourth Street terminus.

Secretary-general for Greater Harare Commuter Omnibus Operators Mr Ngoni Katsvairo said there should be proper enforcement and monitoring of the movement of the omnibuses to and from the holding bay.

Kombi drivers said they deployed their own people to monitor if the system was not shortchanging them in terms of observing  the queue sequence.

“So far, we have had no problem,” said one of the drivers  Mr Patrick Magunje. “The traffic is moving on well in town and we are following the queues. We hope police will clamp down on those picking up passengers from illegal points.”

From the various residential areas, the kombis will come into town using Samora Machel Avenue and turn right into Chinhoyi Street on their way to Copacabana bus rank to drop passengers.

After dropping the passengers, the buses leave by turning into Cameron Street and then Jason Moyo Avenue before finding their way to the holding bay.

The drivers would be instructed to drive back to Copacabana to pick up passengers, when their turn was due.