MPS ADJUST, APPROVE BUS FARE HIKE

LOBAMBA - MPs have approved the bus fare hike.

For distances below eight kilometres, commuters will now have to pay E7.70. 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 of  50 cents 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. This means that there will only be one increase to be effective this year.

According to a report tabled by the acting chairperson of the ministry’s portfolio committee Maphalaleni MP Mabulala Maseko, in their findings, the approval of the staggered increase would have a negative impact on the MPs who would be viewed to have increased bus fares twice within a year. The committee further found that it had taken too long to review the maximum bus and taxi fares as the last increase was in December 2015. According to the report, which was debated and passed yesterday, the portfolio committee had a meeting with stakeholders on the regulations.

Representatives

These included representatives of both the transport operators and commuters to solicit their views on the proposed fares. Transport operators were represented by the Eswatini Road Transport Council  (ERTC) while commuters were represented by the chairperson of the Consumers Association, Bongani Mdluli. It should be noted that Senate is yet to approve the regulations. The ERTC wased asked to justify why they needed the fare increase especially when in most of the routes the gazetted fare was never charged. The ERTC cited the accumulated fuel price increase of 20.8 per cent since the last bus and taxi fare was effected in 2015 as one of the major factor among others to increase. Mdluli is said to have stated that as consumers, they were not ready for any fare increases.

However, in view of the recent fuel increase, they were amenable with an increase up to E7 as a counter-offer to what operators were proposing. It was asked why the average of the two proposed increases, which was E7.75, was not effected once. However, it was stated that five cent coins were not really in circulation now so they agreed that the figure should stand at E7.70. The reason for the high increase in the short distances when compared to the long ones was justified as they said the former experienced high tear and wear on vehicles. The MPs highlighted that there was a need to address the issue of overtrading and renting out of permits otherwise they would keep approving bus fare increases unnecessarily.

Concerned

The MPs were concerned that there was always a price war among operators, resulting in the maximum bus fare not being charged; and they wondered what the ministry could do to compel operators to charge the maximum gazetted fares. The ministry said there was no law which prohibited discounts on bus fares. It was stated that the discounts relieved the public of paying high fares. The ministry said it was to ensure that transport operators did not break the law by charging beyond the maximum gazetted fares.

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