Times Of Swaziland: NO INCREASE IN BUS FARES UNTIL JANUARY 2020

NO INCREASE IN BUS FARES UNTIL JANUARY 2020
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BY MELISA MSWELI on 03/12/2019 00:55:00


MBABANE- Public transport fares will not be hiked at least until January 2020.
This was confirmed by the National Roads Transportation Council (NRTC)
Chairperson Sihlangu Nhlabatsi in an interview with this reporter yesterday.
This comes after reports pointed out that public transport fares were going to
be adjusted upwards beginning of December, which also got customers
uncomfortable due to the festive season where people travelled a lot.
It was notable that people were, since Sunday, asking conductors what the new
fares were when boarding public transport vehicles, as they were of the belief
that they had been effected.
When asked when exactly the hike was going to be effected, Shabangu said it
would be next year after they had finalised the fares with the relevant
stakeholders.
Worry
“Customers should not worry, we will not hike the fares this year. Besides,
Senate is yet to approve the regulations before they get to be implemented,”
he said.
He added that when the hike was ready to be effected, there wouldbe notices
displayed in all the public transport vehicles with each indicating the new
fares as he believed it was not going to be the maximum gazetted fares.
The once-off hike that was approved by Members of Parliament (MPs) stated that,
for distances below eight kilometres, commuters would pay E7.70.
Initially
It should be noted that initially the Ministry of Public Works and Transport had
proposed two increases of E7.50 on December 1, 2019 and another on June 1, 2020.
However, the house resolved that there should be a once-off increase of E7.70,
which was rounded down to average to the nearest 10 cents of the two proposed
increases.