Death bus company suspended following fatal accident

GOVERNMENT intends to suspend Megalink Bus Services following a road accident that claimed over 20 people in April. This is part of Government efforts to bring sanity in public transportation and curb carnage on the country's major highways.

The accident occurred at the 92km peg along the Masvingo-Beitbridge highway. In a notice in the extraordinary Government Gazette published last week, Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Minister Nicholas Goche said the move to suspend the bus company's operations was done in terms of section 45 (1) of the Road Motor Transportation Act.

"One month's notice is hereby given of the Minister's intention to suspend for six months, passenger operation services of Megalink Investments (PVT) Ltd whose headquarters is in Harare. The Minister hereby calls upon parties to submit written representations with regards this proposal to the secretary for Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development within one month from the date of publication," read the notice.

Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Permanent Secretary Mr Munesu Munodawafa yesterday said Section 45 of the Act was invoked because of the anomalies that characterised the accident.

The committee, he said, was set up by his ministry to investigate the cause of the accident found that the bus did not have a slot to travel on that route on the particular day. Mr Munodawafa said there was also concern that the bus only had one driver instead of two. He said the committee also suspected that the accident was due to speeding.

"These are issues the operator should have addressed hence we have invoked Section 45 of the Road Motor Transportation Act. The operator was also called for a meeting and they sent a representative who didn't appear to be conversant with the case. We would have appreciated if they had shown some remorse but the ministry was concerned with the operator's attitude," Mr Munodawafa said.

Mr Munodawafa said the ministry wanted representations from Zimbabweans on their views about the intention to suspend the bus operator. Government, he said, would treat each accident case on its merit in determining if a bus service should be suspended.

"We will look at the circumstances of the accident and if we find that it was beyond the operator and the driver's control then we won't suspend. In this particular case, the operator's apparent unpreparedness to engage the ministry has resulted in us initiating this process," Mr Munodawafa said.

Government in 2009 cancelled Mhunga Bus Service operating licence after a series of fatal accidents that claimed many lives. The licence was restored months later when an investigation found that the buses were roadworthy.