TAYALI IN WRONG LANE

GOVERNMENT has an obligation to ensure that no jobs are lost considering that the nation has a huge army of unemployed youths.

It cannot afford to add more youths to this army of jobless Zambians unless it wants to court disaster.

The planned phasing out of small buses on the country’s roads in the belief that it will help ease congestion is not practicable.

It is an exercise in futility.

It cannot be denied that the transport sector, particularly that involving mini buses has helped and saved thousands of Zambians from unemployment and a life of destitution.

Small operators of passenger transport must in fact be encouraged and supported to expand their businesses to absorb the huge mass of jobless youths.

We do not agree with Transport and Logistics Minister Franck Tayali’s announcement that Government will soon remove smaller buses from the roads to ease congestion in most roads in Lusaka.

This, we believe, is a suggestion not backed by facts on the ground. It is common knowledge already that mini bus operators are restricted to certain roads.

The truth is that removing small buses from the roads to ease congestion is not viable as Zambia is still a developing country and cannot manage to be killing small businesses such as those small bus operators, says Mr Ishmael Kankara.

Mr Kankara, who owns and operates the Flash Buses in Lusaka says it would be insensitive for Government to move to phase out the businesses of small bus operators in an economy that was only growing.

If anything, the government ought to realise the enormous contribution that the small bus operators are making not only to providing cheap transport to commuters but the thousands of supporting jobs they provide.

Moreover, in the absence of public transport in the country, the void has been filled by the small operators.

We agree with Mr Kankara that while the idea might sound plausible in the long run, facts on the ground do not support this idea.

Acording to Mr Kankara, this announcement did not surprise him as the discussion had been there from the time the late President Levy Mwanawasa was in office.

“This talk has been going on for a long, long time. It started from Levy Mwanawasa’s time and it could be a wonderful idea, but we are a country still developing.

I should call ourselves a middle country not even third world country. We are hoping that everything goes well and in the long run it would be a brilliant idea but for the short term, I do not think it is viable, trust me, not now!” Mr Kankara said.

What the government should be working on is providing a conducive environment for small bus operators to grow and improve their operations.

Already, there is some sort of informal arrangements in which they do not operate in Cairo Road for example.

The congestion seen on the streets of Lusaka is largely due to poor traffic management by the authorities. That is where Mr Tayali must concentrate, and leave mini bus operators alone.