POLICE HARASSING US – ‘BOMALUME’

 MBABANE – ‘Bomalume’ are livid over being allegedly ‘stopped’ by police from operating without permits.

Bomalume is a term used to describe public transport operators who ferry school-going children in public transport. They usually drive in private cars such as Honda Fits and Noah vehicles.

This follows that police have stopped 19 operators who do not have permits that allow them to ferry pupils. According to some of them, this was due to the fact that their cars were small and were import vehicles, which are often called Dubais.

One of the kombi operators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed concern that the police were overcharging them for not having permits.
 “Police stop us on the roads when they find us ferrying pupils and issue summons to the value of E500 or E1 000. They tell us that our cars are not permitted to operate because we do not have the right documents,” he said in an interview. 

The public transport operator further alleged that police were harassing them by issuing them these summons as they knew that it would cost them their business which could close down.

He stated that they did not know what needed to be done because they had explained to them (police) numerously that their case was being dealt with in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport but they continue to harass them.

Impossible

When questioned on why they did not have the necessary papers to operate, the public transport operator said this was because it was almost impossible to get the papers as the process often took long.
The operator mentioned that they were informed by certain officials as well from the ministry that their cars were small to transport children.

In addition, he said they were often told that government was still in talks about their proposal. He said the ministry was slow in permitting them to operate on the roads. The public transport operator said they were pinning their hopes on Members of Parliament (MPs) to collaborate with them in fighting to officially get the permits.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: