SHOCKER: E100 RETURN FARE FOR SITEKI-MANZINI TRIP

SITEKI – Travelling between Siteki and Manzini is about to get more expensive for the average men on the street.
Commuters will soon pay about E100 return fare for a trip between the two urban places, public transport operators have revealed.

Currently, commuters are paying E80 return fare for a trip between Siteki and Manzini, following the bus fare hike this past Monday.
Before that, commuters were paying E50 return fare when travelling in buses (E25 per trip) and E60 (E30 per trip) return fare when travelling in mini buses (Sprinters) and Quantums.

Eswatini Local Transport Association Chairman Mandla Dlamini said they were awaiting a government gazette after the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, together with the National Roads Transportation Council, agreed on a 25 per cent bus fare hike last week.

Gazette

“Once the gazette has been issued, we will then decide on how to adjust the fees,” said Dlamini.
He said commuters between the Siteki/Manzini route would definitely pay more than what they were currently paying, which is E80 return fare.
He explained that the adjustment of fares this past Monday was not necessarily a hike but it was a suspension of discount rates, which were implemented by transport operators following an official bus fare hike in 2015.

“I was expecting the public to come to us and thank us (public transport operators) for the discount rates they have enjoyed since 2015. Also, the government should thank us for not adjusting bus fare as per the gazette of 2015,” Dlamini stated. He urged commuters and the public at large not to be confused by the recent adjustment of bus fares for the Siteki-Manzini route. He reiterated that public transport operators did not hike fares but instead they suspended the discount rates and charged commuters as per rates on the government gazette.

Vusi Vilakati, Chairman of the Siteki branch of the Eswatini Local Transport Association, stated that commuters should brace themselves for another hike.
He said since the return fare for the Siteki-Manzini route was currently at E80 (E40 per trip), it was inevitabe that the return fare would increase to E100 or even more, once the 2019 bus fare hike was implemented.

Vilakati explained that public transport operators had to adjust bus fare rates this past Monday, to be at par with the rates provided for in the 2015 gazette before the National Roads and Transportation Council could negotiate with government for a new hike.
“In most of the routes between Siteki town and other places in the region, commuters were paying as per the 2015 gazette except for the Siteki/Manzini route, where public transport operators did not hike fares in 2015,” said Vilakati.

Astounded

On Monday, commuters were astounded when bus fare rates for the Siteki/Manzini route were increased by 60 per cent for buses (from E25 to 40 per trip) and by 33.3 per cent for mini buses and Quantums (from E30 to E40 per trip).
Bus fare rates for the Siteki/Simunye route were also adjusted from E18 per trip to E22.

The Swaziland Consumer Association has condemned the increase of bus fares for the aforementioned routes.
In an interview with this publication on Tuesday, Bongani Mdluli, Chairman of the Swaziland Consumer Association, minced no words when he stated that the bus fare hike implemented in Siteki was ‘wrong’.

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