COMMUTERS STRANDED AS KOMBI WORKERS PROTEST

MANZINI – Scores of pupils and workers commuting between Mbabane and Manzini were left stranded yesterday morning as kombi drivers and conductors refused to work.

The drivers and their conductors gathered at the exit point of the Manzini Bus Rank and barricaded the entrance, refusing any vehicle servicing the Mbabane and Manzini route to leave the terminal point.

This was as early as 6:30am.

Public transport vehicles that were seeking to gain entry into the bus rank to offload passengers, were ordered to park at the section of the bus rank usually used by cross-border kombis.

Controlling this was a group of over 40 conductors and drivers. The rowdy crowd sang songs and whistled each time they saw a vehicle servicing the aforementioned route and pointed it to where the other vehicles were already stationed.

Baffled 

The behaviour of the crowd left many people baffled while others hastened to walk past them. As the disorder was ongoing, the conductors permitted other vehicles to service their routes. This was after they removed rocks that had been used to block the road leading into and out of the Manzini Bus Rank.

The rocks had been stacked across the road by the kombi workers, blocking any vehicle from gaining entry into the bus terminal.

While the protest was ongoing, a high number of passengers who sought to travel to Mbabane from the bus rank were left stranded.  Some noted that the entrance of the bus rank was barricaded and opted to use bus stops like the one at Green Valley towards Mavuso Trade and Exhibition Centre to get transport.

While this was happening, some members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), under the Traffic Department, were drawn to the crowd. They maintained order and allowed vehicles from other routes to operate freely.

Agreement 

According to impeccable sources, the feud that culminated in the protest followed that the Manzini and Mbabane branches of the Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA) had not reached an agreement in the manner in which to operate.

It was gathered that kombi operators that are registered under Manzini demanded that all their vehicles should be allowed to operate while those in Mbabane were of the view that only 50 per cent of the total number of kombis servicing the route should work.

It was gathered that about 130 kombis service this route. 

Ever since the country was said to be in a state of national emergency, a rotational schedule for the loading of public service vehicles was introduced. The schedule permits half the number of vehicles to service their routes on a rotational basis, for four days apiece.

This resulted in some kombi operators complaining that the rotational schedule exposed them to litigation as there was a high probability that their vehicles would be repossessed due to failure to honour their credit facility commitments with financiers.

The Secretary General of the Manzini Branch of SLTA, Sabelo Dlamini, confirmed that the kombi drivers and conductors in Manzini downed tools in the morning yesterday.

 He said: “The challenge is that some of the kombi owners are not seeing eye-to-eye on the logistics of operations. Some of the owners want 50 per cent of the vehicles to operate while others seek that all of them should resume operating in the normal way.”

Dlamini explained that the challenge was that operating through the use of the schedule was no longer functional given the fact that the economy had been opened up and all sectors were operating. Under normal circumstances, all kombis operated through a list that was deemed fair to all. 

Schedule 

Dlamini said due to the rotational schedule introduced when the country went on partial lockdown, there were fewer people who were travelling as masses were encouraged to stay at home.

However, now that the economy was fully operational, Dlamini said kombi operators claimed that working four days on rotational basis destabilised their operations as the money tendered by the kombi drivers was hard to justify. “The kombi operators feel that being regulated to operate on a schedule does not help them as there is no compensation.” On the other hand, the protest was thwarted through the intervention of the police and the National Executive of SLTA. This was around 9:30am.

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