Opinion / Columnist
Spruce-up Order on Kombis Now
22 Aug 2014 at 09:43hrs | Views
The recent control of Kombis by City Council of Harare is a classic development considering the chaos which ruled prior to this, especially at Coppa-Cabana. There is now remarkable order which is worth mentioning.
I believe this improved the City Council's collection of revenue from these operators. Violators of the City bye-laws in this respect should be treated under punitive measures. We all need to work hard to restore the integrity of our capital city.
However, I wish to challenge City Council to extend this same principle to Kombis at Fourth Street, Charge Office, Market Square and Rezende Street terminuses. These areas are still characterized by a real nuisance caused by rowdy kombi crews who cause massive noise pollution, unnecessary crowding, blocking roads, interfering with shoppers thereby depriving residents of the comfort of our city, especially at corner Julius Nyerere and Robert Mugabe Way.
The other factor now is, Kombi operators hike fares randomly during rush hours. How can you protect the ordinary citizens against such unjust treatment? Surely, if all these operators are registered and operating legally, they are under obligation to observe certain practices which satisfy the market expectations.
The City Council is also faced with a mammoth task to eradicate pirate taxes which service short city routes like, Fourth Street – Coppa Cabana or City - Avondale. These are causing unnecessary crowding in the city, awhile at the same time they are not contributing any revenue. If need be, they should be regularized to ensure that they operate legally and mitigate the chaos which they are causing since most of them are notorious for endangering human lives in their routine speedy-chases running-away from police.
The Kombis which are compliant to parking their vehicles at the Coventry holding bay are crying foul over these pirates which they feel are gaining more by operating illegally since they are not disturbed in their routes.
In view of such, the City Council is urged to take expeditious stern measure to deal with such a nuisance.
Source - Suitable Kajau
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