Gov’t succumbs to public transporters’ pressure
Mompati Tlhankane | Friday May 20, 2022 13:56
The increase according to Molale will apply to scheduled services, shared taxis and minibuses. He, however, said the increase will not affect special taxis. He explained that Cabinet approved the adjustment to the public road transport passenger fares.
The new fares are as follows:
Shared Taxi: P8.00
Mini-Bus (Combi): P7.00
Special taxi: P33.00
Long distance (tarred road): P0.35t per kilometer
Long distance (gravel): P0.38t per kilometer
In making the decision, Molale added that Cabinet considered the interest of the commuters, the operators and the economy at large.
“It is crucial that the fares are sustainable and they are affordable to the commuters and transport operators also get a return on their investments and fares do not impose and do inflationary pressure on the economy,” he indicated. He said 15% is considered fair and reasonable to everyone involved.
“We looked at various services at large; we didn’t look much at the operators’ demands. The public transporters wanted 61% but we sat down with relevant stakeholders like the Ministry of Finance to facilitate an informed and balanced decision. We evaluated the situation from a broader perspective, and we came up with 15%, which was the reasonable number for both transport service providers and their customers,” he said.
The Goodhope/Mabule legislator further emphasised that they didn’t look at service providers only but we also considered people who use these services. He said if they had listened to transporters' demands only then it will have affected commuters to a large extent. “Our intention is to service everyone from providers to customers”.
Considering that the strike had inconvenienced a lot of people in the past three days, Molale apologised for taking a longer time to resolve the situation and address the situation where there was suspension of public transport services and obstruction of some who were willing to provide the service willingly. He said going forward they are going to be working with key stakeholders to develop a framework where the proposed adjustment to the fuel prices and their impact on provision of public transport are computed. “This will facilitate the necessary analysis that will trigger adjustments to be effected in the transport fares,” he said. He said as stakeholders they will make sure that there is no repeat of what happened in the past three days.
In an interview with Mmegi shortly after the announcement last night, Botswana Bus Operators Association chairperson, Tiragalo Mponang said 15% is too small and it will take them nowhere.
“We wonder which demands they were responding to. But, because they did some increase we can’t say we are not continuing with the strike. Tomorrow we are going back to work but we will continue the dialogue,” he said. He added that they made their plea when a litre of diesel was still P13.90 not P16.64 now. Mponang said Molale didn’t respond to that therefore, they are likely to clash if there are some changes in the future.