Times Of Swaziland: 50% PUBLIC TRANSPORT FARE HIKE ON THE CARDS

50% PUBLIC TRANSPORT FARE HIKE ON THE CARDS
================================================================================
BY SIBONGILE SUKATI on 13/03/2014 02:13:00


LOBAMBA – Commuters will soon feel the pinch of a 50 per cent hike in public
transport fares. This follows the tabling of the Maximum Bus and Taxi Fares
(Amendment) Regulations, 2014 by the minister of Public Works and Transport in
the House of Assembly yesterday.
Members of Parliament are expected to debate and approve the amended regulations
before they are implemented into law.
The last time public transport fares were increased was in 2007 with the
introduction of Legal Notice 124 of 2007 and they are expected to be substituted
with the new schedules after being adopted by Parliamentarians.
According to the new regulations the maximum fares for the conveyance of
passengers by means of a bus will be E6.00 for a journey up to 8km and for an
excess of 8km charge at 60 cents per kilometre.
One of the main routes, Mbabane to Manzini, will now cost commuters E25.80 as
opposed to E17.20 which had been the old gazetted fee although public transport
owners had given a leeway to charge E15.
The increase also includes that of taxi fares which are also expected to go up.
Short distances that had previously been E4 on a bus or kombi will, according to
the proposal, be E6 while for taxis the short distance which was charged at E28
will now be E32.
The local public transport operators had for a while been asking government for
a review in the public transport fares, stating that with the cost of fuel
increasing and the price for spare parts also on the increase, there was a need
for the fares to go up.
However, government had previously been able to stall this until the tabling of
the new regulations which were tabled by Minister of Tinkhundla Administration
and Development Mduduzi Dlamini as the substantive Minister, Lindiwe Dlamini,
was not in Parliament yesterday.