By A Correspondent| The Harare Residents Trust has questioned the availability of new ZUPCO buses bought by government to improve transport in urban areas, saying passengers continue to be stranded at pick up points especially after 7PM.

Posting on Twitter, HRT called for the dismissal of ZUPCO management accusing them of failing to properly manage the transport system.

Below is HRT’s full statement;

The new ZUPCO buses are not visible on Harare roads. Where exactly were they deployed? After 7 pm, there would be no ZUPCO buses to pick up passengers, leaving most workers stranded in town. Why is ZUPCO operating like this? The buses go to park when passengers are still stranded in town. A new management is definitely needed to make ZUPCO operate along commercial lines to serve the people and make money for the company. Reports even suggest that sometimes ZUPCO crews do not ask for money on boarding and then ask for payment when someone is leaving the bus, but do not issue tickets. Such a public transport company should improve its system to serve the public and not benefit a few individuals.

ZUPCO runs without following any timetable for people to get used to. The company can possibly introduce shifts for their crews so that the buses are readily available to ferry people even up to midnight.

Mishika-Shika and kombis operate freely and with minimal police interference because either the ZUPCO management has their own mishika-shika, or the police officers own the mishika-shika which are risky but serving the desperate commuters.

Why is there like a deliberate ploy to make ZUPCO so unprofessional, unreliable and poorly run? Under the current circumstances where it is the only allowed public transporter, it should be making a huge profit, serving the people with professionalism so that even when competition comes, they would have made their mark.

Who is destroying ZUPCO? The new buses are nowhere to be found on the road. Transport shortages are still prevalent.