Gaborone -Maun route causes rift between transport giants

Transport giants, Motsatsi Investments and Mokoka Transport have for a while now been involved in a row over the Gaborone/Maun route.

The two parties, who are well-known transport companies that mainly deal with passenger transport logistics, have not been seeing eye to eye due to pre-booking and pre-ticketing of trips on the route.

Motsatsi, which has been plying the route a bit longer, was not happy that Mokoka who joined the same route in July 2020 and came up with the idea of pre-trip ticket booking, which Motsatsi believed was flouting of regulations of the Road Transport (Permits) Regulations Act.

According to the Motsatsi operator, Mokoka was flouting the regulations because a bus operator was not permitted for such a thing and that it was interfering with his own business.

“I perceived such practice as flouting the regulations since according to interpretation, a bus operator is not permitted to issue tickets or load passengers at either the Gaborone or Maun bus ranks preceding its bus scheduled time.

This extends to pre-trip bookings at bus stops/ ranks along the route,” the Motsatsi operator reasoned.

The operator explained that Mokoka was doing pre-trip bookings with respect to the route in question, of which such bookings were done at the Gaborone, Palapye, Serowe, Letlhakane and Maun bus ranks.

However, the Mokoka operator in his counter against the allegations advanced said there were no regulations flouted because the law clearly stated that pre-booking and pre-ticketing were allowed.

Aggrieved by the act, Motsatsi lodged a legal complaint against Mokoka which was subsequently dismissed by Maun High Court judge, Justice Godfrey Nthomiwa on the grounds that the matter was not urgent.

Not happy with the outcome of the High Court, Motsatsi launched an appeal on urgency again at the Court of Appeal and the application was heard recently with an unfavourable outcome for Motsatsi again. The bench of Justices Mercy Garekwe, Singh Walia and Judge President Tebogo Tau dismissed the appeal with costs saying it was unmerited.

Justice Garekwe explained that there was no way Mokoka was flouting the transport rules because in simple, straightforward interpretation the law allowed for pre-booking, pre-payment of fares, and pre-ticketing. “Such intent cannot be construed as depriving any transporter of passengers at the spots where the pre-bookings have been made,” she said.

She added that as a matter of common sense and practice an individual as an intending passenger determines when she/he desires to travel and that the fact that she/he decides today to travel but in a week and desires to ensure they have a seat available for them on the day of intended travel by pre-booking.

The judge pointed out that it has nothing to do with the transporters who are going to ply the same route on the days and at the times the passenger does not want to embark on her/his trip.

“There is as such no substance in the arguments presented by the complainant and the appeal ought to fail,” Garekwe said.