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Government has mandated the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) to provide public transport in urban areas.

What this means is that Zupco is the sole public transporter in urban areas and those that want to join the public transport service have to operate under Zupco.

The sole public transporter has been allowed to rope in private transporters with kombis and buses in order to boost its fleet. Many of these private transporters have since joined Zupco and are now operating under the Zupco franchise.

Some of the kombi operators have however refused to join Zupco and are as a result providing public transport illegally in different cities and towns.

The police have responded by impounding these kombis hence many of them are now parked at the different police stations. The owners of these kombis and the crews are being prosecuted.

In protest against the police clampdown, kombi crews and drivers of mshikashika in Bulawayo last week blocked roads and ordered commuters to disembark from Zupco buses and kombis. The police reacted swiftly and arrested the kombi crews and their touts for interfering with the operations of Zupco. What the illegal kombi crews and mshikashika drivers are doing should be condemned in the strongest terms.

Many commuters were left stranded after being ordered out of Zupco buses resulting in some of them reporting late for work on Friday.

We do not want taxi wars in this country and we therefore commend the police for their swift reaction. Traffic police enlisted the services of the ZRP Support Unit to restore order on the city’s roads.

When Government mandated Zupco to be the sole public transporter it wanted to bring sanity to the public transport sector. Those that want to provide public transport should join Zupco and if there are any issues they are not happy with, they should engage Government.

We are totally against anarchy which was brewing on Friday and had the police not quickly intervened, the situation could have degenerated into a taxi war. It is our fervent hope that the courts will mete out punishment that will send a very clear message to these kombi crews and touts that anarchy on our roads is not tolerated.

Our commuting public should be guaranteed reliable and affordable public transport under the Zupco franchise.

We want at this juncture to urge the commuters to play their role in bringing sanity to the public transport sector by shunning these illegal kombis and mshikashika that are putting their lives at risk as many of them play cat and mouse with the police daily.

The illegal kombis are also not taking measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.