TRAVEL ALERT talks
Bus operators threaten to park until government ‘We are too broke to be on the road’ ‘Fuel is not the only problem we have’ Govt advises commuters to find alternative transport
The Chairperson of Botswana Bus Operators Association Tiragalo Mponang says they will sit at home until government bends to their demands or at the very least, meets them halfway. If not, they will continue parking their buses, taxis and kombis at home and watch as public transport users suffer. It is not that they are trying to punish commuters, or trying to ‘fix’ government but because they are deeply feeling the brunt of increased fuel prices.
“We are just driving with nothing to take home. We cannot fuel our vehicles, we cannot service them, we cannot even afford lunch, so what exactly are we doing? Why should we be sacrificing ourselves and our vehicles for nothing? We are not on strike, we are just home because what we are doing is volunteerism but should we experience mechanical problems, our vehicles will be down and out,” Mponang said.
He went on to explain that it is not like they are trying to put government in a tight corner to get their way.
“Fares review happens every two years, the last time that happened was in 2020. It should happen again this year.
We wonder why government is trying to be new to the matter. We admit that the current fuel price increase hits hard on us but it should be known that before the increase was announced, we had already put our grievances before government. Expectation was that they would respond on the issues we long raised, we long called for an increase of fares,” he said.
He added maintaining buses is expensive. They fork out around P15 000 for labour alone and depending on what needs to be attended to, they can pay huge sums of over P26 000 or more. It does not help that they need to service their buses after every 20 000 km, meaning for long distance buses, they are forced to do service fortnightly.
A single trip from Gaborone to Francistown, he said, needs around P3400 for fuel. However, business is slow during the week, on a good day, they are able to make around P2500, meaning they are short on fuel. They end up digging from their savings to top-up, leaving them broke.
Mponang said that government has only two options - to either increase fares or sell petrol to them at a lower price.
“They should sell us petrol at P13 per litre as it was the case before last week’s increment. We
believe that fuelling points bought fuel at a lower price and will only bear the brunt of increased prices from their sources on their next orders,” Mponang said.
On the other hand, Edison Tlhomelang of the Kombi Association said any public transport operator who wants to go to work is free to do so. In fact they saw some public transport drivers on the road this past Tuesday.
“We do not know how those on the road are able to bear the high costs and we will not do anything to stop them from working. We are not home because we are big headed, we are home because we cannot afford being on the road. We
cannot even buy tyres, should an accident happen on the road, we will be out of business just like that,” Tlhomelang cried.
“It will be unfair on our clients to load them on our buses only for them to stop before reaching their destinations. We care about them but we are too broke to transport them,” he said.
By late Tuesday afternoon, government had not said anything about the matter, with the Ministry of Transport and Public Works spokesperson Doreen Motshegwe saying they are still to engage and deliberate on the matter. On Monday, the Ministry released a statement advising commuters to find alternative transport.