PROPOSED BUS FARE HIKE: E13 FOR SHORT DISTANCES

MANZINI – Travelling short distances by public transport will hike from E8 to E13 if the proposal put forth by players in the industry is given a nod by government.

Public transport operators want the proposed bus fare hike to be implemented immediately, which will see short distances fares increasing by at least 62 per cent. As such, the different associations in the public transport industry, including buses, kombis, taxis and trucks among others, will have a special meeting to discuss the matter further. This decision was taken by the representatives of the different associations in the public transport sector during a caucus meeting held at the Swazi Commercial Amadoda Hall at KaKhoza over the weekend.

Ambrose Dlamini, the National Secretary General of the Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA), said following the fuel price hike, which was effected on Thursday night, they saw it proper to meet as operators because they had a pending review of public transport fares, which was tabled to government in October 2021 and they had asked that it should be implemented on December 1, 2021. However, according to the public transport operators, who represented their different associations in the caucus meeting, the price of fuel had increased three times since they had proposed the bus fares hike.

Increased

In November 2021, the price of unleaded petrol increased by E0.75/litre from E15.05/litre to E16.25/litre and in December 2021, it increased by E0.90 to E17.15/litre. On Thursday March 3, 2022, it went up by E1.40/litre from E17.15 to E18.55. This means that the total increase between November 2021 and March 2022 is E3.05/litre. On the same note, in November 2021, the price of diesel increased from E15/litre to 16.20/litre (E1.20/litre increase) and in December 2021, it shot up by E0.80 to E17.00/litre. Then on Thursday March 3, 2022, it increased again by E1.60/litre to E18.60/litre. This means after that the public transport operators had proposed the bus fares hike, the price of diesel has increased by E3.60/litre.

In their proposal, the public transport operators said they wanted bus fares for short distances (up to eight kilometres) to be increased from E8 to E13, which was a 62.5 per cent increase. Meanwhile, for any journey in excess of eight kilometres, but not exceeding 50 kilometres, they want an increase of 10 per cent. Then for any journey in excess of 50 kilometres, they want the fares to increase by five per cent. Worth noting is that, in long distances, they calculated bus fares in kilometres. For example, with the current bus fares, for distances between eight kilometres to 50 kilometres, it is E0.66/kilometre and for those above 50kilometres, it is E0.63/kilometre.

Thereafter, during the caucus meeting, the operators said the delay in the implementation of the proposed review of bus fares made them to operate at a loss because of the continued fuel price hike, the state of the country’s public roads, which damaged their vehicles now and then, together with high prices of spare parts, among other things.Again, they highlighted that they had also learnt that they would be expected to increase salaries for their workers by at least 15.6 per cent, which would dig deep into their pockets. In that regard, they said the proposed bus fare hike should be implemented immediately. They urged each otherto charge maximum fares instead of charging passengers less than the gazetted amount. They added that according to their knowledge, government had already met with consumer associations to discuss the proposed bus fares. It is worth noting that the bus fare hikes also has to be approved in Parliament and now Members of Parliament (MPs) are busy with discussing and debating reports.

However, one of the stakeholders in the matter highlighted that when the proposed bus fares hike was tabled to government, Parliament was about to close for the December holidays. The stakeholder added that the first business of Parliament when it reopened was to deal with reports from the different portfolios. On another note, some of the public transport operators said they did not want the issue of bus fares to go to Parliament because they were of the view that some of the parliamentarians delayed the matter as a strategy to use it to campaign for votes in their constituencies. They claimed that such MPs informed their constituents that they would not approve the proposed bus fare hikes. Their argument was that fuel hikes did not go to Parliament, thus they also wanted bus fare hikes issue not to be taken to the House of Assembly.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: