PUBLIC TRANSPORT BLACKOUT FROM MONDAY?

 MANZINI – Public transport dilemma! This is what is likely to happen from Monday as public transport operators have vowed to park their vehicles due to the shortage of spares like brake pads. In fact, they said their vehicles were posing a danger to the public they were transporting.

However, according to the public transport operators, the issue of unavailability of spares to fix their vehicles, together with the fact that the COVID-19 regulations together with the guidelines were not adhered to in the industry, were some of the reasons they wanted to park their vehicles. The operators took the decision to park their vehicles during a meeting held at Swazi Commercial Amadoda (SCA) hall yesterday.

After taking the resolution, the operators who were represented by a selected few, ordered the National Road Transport Council (NRTC) National Executive Committee (NEC) to inform the Disaster Management Task Team about their decision and they should do so in writing.

In their arguments, the operators said if they continued to transport the public, they would literally be promoting the spread of the deadly virus and put many lives in danger. They said the guidelines that every passenger should wear a mask, sanitised when boarding the vehicles were not adhered to because government was allegedly supplying them with inadequate sanitisers.

Sanitisers

For example, they alleged that during the 20-day partial lockdown, which started on March 27, 2020 and ended on April 15, 2020, they received the sanitisers from government on the 11th day of the lockdown and they were not enough to last them through the lockdown.
In terms of masks, they said government had never engaged them as operators on how to deal with passengers who did not have.

“In that regard, if we continue to transport them, we will be putting everybody’s life at risk,” they argued.
They said the passengers would be at high risk of contracting the virus if they did not have masks and were not sanitised when boarding the vehicles. Again, they said their workers (drivers and conductors) would also be exposed in one way or the other.

“Our lives and families will not be spared as we will receive the daily collections (contaminated money) from the workers and use it as a family,” they argued. They added that operating under the lockdown did not work for them, thus they decided to park their vehicles as of Monday.

Sabelo Dlamini, the Secretary General of Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA), confirmed the meeting and the decision that was taken by the operators.

However, he said the resolution would be submitted to the Disaster Management Task Team today, since their correspondent in the task team was in Parliament until late in the evening.

Meanwhile, NRTC Chairman Sihlangu Nhlabatsi could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone rang unanswered for the better part of yesterday afternoon.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: