Business / Companies
ZUPCO left with 18 buses
11 Mar 2015 at 01:59hrs | Views
THE Zimbabwe Passenger Company (ZUPCO) is only left with a mere 18 buses to service the country, parliament heard on Tuesday.
Presenting the first report of the portfolio committee on local government, rural and urban development on services delivered by the city of Harare, committee chairperson Irene Zindi said Zupco has no money for recapitalisation by Government was happy with its operations.
"The Committee was also concerned about lack of provision of an urban public transport system and invited the Ministry and ZUPCO management to a meeting to explain its plans to address operational challenges faced by ZUPCO.
"The Committee was informed that ZUPCO started the recapitalisation process in 2009 after the introduction of the multi-currency system.
"At this point, ZUPCO was left with 18 buses and had no money for recapitalisation. The Ministry expressed satisfaction that ZUPCO was doing well considering that it was not getting any funding from the fiscus. It was submitted that ZUPCO bought 305 buses since 2011 of which 240 are operational and 65 are grounded," said Zindi.
She added "The Company has targeted to buy 100 buses every year. The Committee suggested that the Ministry should privatise ZUPCO since it seemed to be operating at a loss. The Ministry indicated that ZUPCO was critical as it provides transport to rural areas where other operators would not go because of the state of the road. ZUPCO was however unable to tell the Committee its market shares in rural areas,"
During the debate, Glen Norah MP Webster Maondera accused Zanu PF of collapsing the passenger company.
In reference to Zanu PF, he said the buses re used for political expedience and wondered whether they are being paid for.
He said "In the past there was public transport in the form of ZUPCO. We have heard that ZUPCO is in intensive care, that it is dead. It is not functional and it is now in the grave. The company now has challenges and we no longer have hope that these buses will be resuscitated so that there will be a public transport company to ferry commuters to and from and within the City of Harare, but we have seen some of these buses being used for political expedience. We do not know whether the services of these buses are being paid for or not."
Presenting the first report of the portfolio committee on local government, rural and urban development on services delivered by the city of Harare, committee chairperson Irene Zindi said Zupco has no money for recapitalisation by Government was happy with its operations.
"The Committee was also concerned about lack of provision of an urban public transport system and invited the Ministry and ZUPCO management to a meeting to explain its plans to address operational challenges faced by ZUPCO.
"The Committee was informed that ZUPCO started the recapitalisation process in 2009 after the introduction of the multi-currency system.
"At this point, ZUPCO was left with 18 buses and had no money for recapitalisation. The Ministry expressed satisfaction that ZUPCO was doing well considering that it was not getting any funding from the fiscus. It was submitted that ZUPCO bought 305 buses since 2011 of which 240 are operational and 65 are grounded," said Zindi.
She added "The Company has targeted to buy 100 buses every year. The Committee suggested that the Ministry should privatise ZUPCO since it seemed to be operating at a loss. The Ministry indicated that ZUPCO was critical as it provides transport to rural areas where other operators would not go because of the state of the road. ZUPCO was however unable to tell the Committee its market shares in rural areas,"
During the debate, Glen Norah MP Webster Maondera accused Zanu PF of collapsing the passenger company.
In reference to Zanu PF, he said the buses re used for political expedience and wondered whether they are being paid for.
He said "In the past there was public transport in the form of ZUPCO. We have heard that ZUPCO is in intensive care, that it is dead. It is not functional and it is now in the grave. The company now has challenges and we no longer have hope that these buses will be resuscitated so that there will be a public transport company to ferry commuters to and from and within the City of Harare, but we have seen some of these buses being used for political expedience. We do not know whether the services of these buses are being paid for or not."
Source - Byo24News
