Luveve - Cowdray Park residents wants Bulawayo council dissolved over transport blues

Luveve and Cowdray Park Residents in Bulawayo recently wrote a letter to the Local Government and Public Works and National Housing minister Ignatius Chombo demanding the dissolution of Bulawayo City Council over failure to resolve their transport problems.

This was reported by the BCC Town Clerk Middleton Nyoni during a full council meeting indicating that a letter from the concerned residents dated 30 March, 2015 had been received from "Abandoned Residents-Luveve-Cowdray Park)", and was addressed to the Minister of Local Government Public Works and National Housing. The letter he talked about read, "We the residents of Bulawayo, particularly Luveve and Cowdray Park do hereby request you Honorable to dissolve Bulawayo City Council for the sake of no confidence towards us."

The letter further stated that sometime in 2014 the City Council adopted a graft policy in transportation of Bulawayo Residents. "As such the graft was adopted against our wishes. It separated the two organisation's routine, namely Tshova Mubaiwa and Bulawayo United Passenger Transport Association (BUPTA)," reads the letter.

"Which means Tshova Mubaiwa had to abandon our area, Cowdray Park and Luveve entirely. After a thoroughly study we realized that the graft was bias and was in favour of BUPTA the company whose directors are from BCC officials namely Wisdom Siziba, Elliot Paniso including Director of Engineering Services Simela Dube. We then rejected the graft and instead advised the Executive Mayor to intervene and stop this rot but in vein."

The letter further stated that this intrigued the Mayor to call for an Outreach Programme which was carried out towards late 2014.

"We have our own minutes regarding this whereby people rejected Bulawayo United Passenger Transport Association (BUPTA) and favoured Tshova Mubaiwa," reads the letter.

"This did not go well with the trio's expectations and therefore before coming back to us with the results from the Outreach programme, Siziba diverted people's views and announced in the ZBC that Tshova Mubaiwa is barred from plying our areas. Cowdray Park and Luveve including Pumula and Nkulumane is Green Belt in business of commuter and in this regard these directors thought it wise to have their only omnibuses plying those routes elbowing out Tshova Mubaiwa using tricky graft transport policy."

The residents further wrote that, "We have notified the Mayor of Bulawayo through the copied letter to Minister Obert Mpofu, that we won't allow such ill full thing to happen to us, but it seems these guys are stiff-necked and adamant. They continue neglecting people's views and announcing this proposed programme of theirs, and also in response, we have resolved to pray your worship to come and dissolve this whole Council."

They said they cannot be taken for a ride by handful individuals against the will of the people.

"It seems these guys have abandoned the people and focused on their personal interests," they wrote.

"Therefore we pray come to our rescue and dissolved the whole bench or simply fire the trio and replace them with people's interest observers. We are tired of this dictatorship and we can't stand it anymore."

The residents said presently they are in pursuit of mobilizing a strong demo against these guys, but have decided to contact the ministry office for assistance before.

The residents told Chombo that this is Bulawayo and not a one man's property as it now looks.

"We as affected residents won't just fold our arms and watch," wrote the residents.

"We will stand up and shout until we are heard. The guys are now politicking through us. This is a day light politics combined with corruption and disgusting from a trusted body such as BCC .Its really upsetting .Please we pray come to our rescue. Things are coming out of hands now. The sad story is that even our Councilors whom we chose seem to be reluctant to help us. We are passing a vote of no confidence against BCC and therefore pray for disolvement of the whole Council entirely! Enough is enough."

The letter was copied to Bulawayo Mayor Martin Moyo, Transport minister Mpofu and Provincial minister Sandi Moyo.

According to council minutes the matter was then taken up by Director of Engineering Dube who in his response said it is a well-known fact that extensive consultations were carried out with regards to Public Transport in the City of Bulawayo.

"Needless to say that this process culminated in the crafting of the Public Transport Policy. As part of the implementation of the Policy two companies have been formed and these companies sat down and identified, in agreement with each other areas that they want us to serve and operate in," replied Dube.

"This information was then relayed to the Council. This is the information that will be incorporated into the service agreement. The division of the City is not rigid but should the companies want to change the boundaries they are free to do so."

Dube said this policy is new and therefore brings in change and change could be painful to some sections of the community.

"Despite this pain residents must focus on the end result which is order, safety, convenience, growth in the local Transport economy," said Dube.

"The vision is that the Public Transport Service provided should be better than that currently provided by Tshova Mubaiwa. The onus is in all stakeholders including the passengers to ensure that this vision is realized."

He said it is therefore not necessary to point fingers at Council officials because this is a city wide process that should be owned by all stakeholders.

"There should be no failure at the local level to reach agreement on such an important subject and there is no need to run all the way to Harare for a solution," Dube said.

The matter was considered and the Director of Engineering Services explained that the matter was emanating from the Public Transport Policy, that is the implementation programme of which subsequent to this letter a series of meetings had been held with the operators. On the ground the eastern areas had taken position quite effectively and they seemed to be operating properly.

He said there was still a challenge with the western areas where Tshova Mubaiwa should have taken position in the area that they should operate from. He said they seem now to have incited residents not to agree to the policy, preferring the status quo to remain. "Tshova Mbaiwa was supposed to operate between Khami Road and Plumtree Road," said Dube.

"Their understanding of Khami Road was Hyde Park Road so that they could go as far as Pumula South."

He said separate meetings were held with Tshova Mbaiwa, Bupta and other operators and some operators said were not comfortable with Tshova Mubaiwa because the company did not want to change from its operative stance.

"On statistics Tshova Mubaiwa had 233 vehicles whereas other players that were former Bupta had 646 vehicles," he said.

"A meeting had been held with the operators and they felt that Tshova Mubaiwa should start afresh."

He mentioned that they had resolved that the two groups should provide a Steering Committee that would actually steer the unification. He said that most of the operations were being sponsored by Tshova Mubaiwa, who had realised that the cake/portion they had taken was too small. He said if Mubaiwa wanted to operate as a cooperative, then it should operate as a substructure of the final area company that the two teams would actually work on. "Discussion ensued and the Deputy Mayor (Councillor Gift Banda) sought clarification on why Tshova Mubaiwa was changing goal posts, when in actually fact he had been part of the process," he said.

Dube said they had assumed that Tshova Mubaiwa was an organised company. "When they started, the two areas were meant for the companies of which Bupta went ahead and communicated with its stakeholders and selected their routes and executives forming their company," said Dube.

"Bupta managed to register its company but Mubaiwa indicated that their final documents were in Harare. The reason why there was a challange was because at the meeting attended by the Director of Housing and Community Services Tshova Mubaiwa had come in to say they wanted to maintain the status quo. The policy said Mubaiwa's vehicles in Bupta area should rebrand and become part of Bupta and Bupta's vehicles in Tshova Mubaiwa's area should also rebrand and become Tshova Mubaiwa. There was no way the letter could be responded to because it was anonymous."

The council resolved that the two transport organisations provide a Steering Committee that will steer their unification process and facilitate dialogue with Council on outstanding issues.