PASSENGERS TO BE DISINFECTED

MANZINI - From now onwards, passengers will be disinfected when boarding public transport vehicles.

This is because following the drastic measures taken by the country to fight the spread of the coronavirus; the Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA) has also spelt out safety precautions to be taken by public transport operators and workers to protect themselves and their clients from the virus (COVID-19). The safety precautions were issued by SLTA National Chairman Mandla Dlamini yesterday.

Clean

The chairman urged public transport operators and workers to ensure that their vehicles were always clean. He said they would do this by washing and disinfecting them regularly, especially when they were in the queue at the bus rank. Furthermore, Dlamini said public transport workers; conductors in particular, should regularly wash their hands with soap and water or disinfectants. “Most importantly, they (conductors) should disinfect the hands of every customer when boarding their vehicles. This means that all public transport operators should have disinfectants and maybe paper towels,” the chairman said. He said they as a national executive committee (NEC), had already engaged the branch members on the issue and they would be working with the Ministry of Health in acquiring the disinfectants and masks for the workers.

Furthermore, the chairman warned the conductors against touching or handling customers when persuading them to board their vehicles. He said by so doing, they could put their lives or those of the customers at risk of contracting the virus as it could stay in hands and clothes. The chairman also mentioned that since it was impractical for them in the industry to ensure a metre radius between two people; he warned the public transport workers against overloading. On that note, he said they hoped the police would be watchful on the roads.

Engage

He then asked the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to engage that of Health regarding having workshops for public transport operators and workers, together with SLTA executive members, because they wanted to ensure that their customers were safe from contracting the virus.  “The safety and health of our customers is our priority as they are our main stakeholders. On that note, we also urge them to follow the safety precautions from the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO),” the chairman said. Moreover, he said as an organisation, they believed that if they could work together as a nation, they would successfully fight the coronavirus. On another note, the chairman thanked His Majesty King Mswati III, on behalf of the association, for taking drastic measures in the fight against the coronavirus. He also thanked the Ministry of Health for being proactive in updating the nation about the virus.

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