The Bulawayo Progressive Residents’ Association (Bura) has implored the government to address transport shortages at the backdrop of government parastatal, Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) failing to cope with demand.
The government in March banned private-owned buses and commuter omnibuses to ply urban routes as a strategy to monitor people going into towns when the country is under a lockdown imposed to curb the transmission and spread of the coronavirus.
Teresia Nyathi, member of Bura said the government-owned bus company did not have adequate buses and commuter omnibuses to service the city. Nyathi said:
The Zupco system has introduced a new set of problems as commuters are worse off than before the monopolisation of the transport system.
Zupco has a non-existent communication system to alert commuters on the availability of transport on that particular day.
Bura said they were concerned that commuters were being exposed to the coronavirus due to overcrowding
at Zupco pick-up points where residents are usually gathered waiting for their turn to board the scarce buses.
Zupco reported last week that a number of buses in Harare and Bulawayo were parked as the company had insufficient fuel to cater for its fleet.
