Zanu PF run council backtracks over new hike of fees following some stiff resistance (07-09-07)

appointed commission led by Fungai Chauruka has been forced to eat humble by reversing its decision much to the delight of the operators.

Chaeruka professed ignorance over the increase in fees paid by transport operators at the terminus but his town clerk Obert Muzawazi sang a different tune in an interview with CAJ News.

“We realized what we had done was in contrast with the government directive not to increase cost of services and maintain them to June 18 2007 levels.”

“This is also because I am a new person at the council and I have to adhere to the Price Control and Monitoring Taskforce. The fees have been reversed to $250 000 an hour,” Muzawazi said.

The council had hiked fees by 300 percent for buses using the terminus for loading purposes.
The long distance buses were paying Z$250 000 an hour before it was increased to Z$1,6m for the same duration.

The move angered operators who immediately withdrew their fleet of buses from using the council rank yesterday.

Members of the Zimbabwe Stage Carriage Association, ZSCA expressed joy over the development.

Wonder Bhasera of ZSCA said he was happy with the reversal of the fees as the hike would mean they would not take much home.

“This is a victory to sanity as increasing fees at this time while the government is against any increases defies logic,” he said.

The ZSCA is an organization the represents the needs of public transport operators in the country-CAJ News.