FREEZE ISSUING OF PERMITS – PUBLIC OPERATORS

MBABANE – Following a meeting that was held in Manzini at Swaziland Commercial Amadoda offices, transport operators have resolved that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport should suspend issuing of permits for a period of one year for mini-bus/midi-bus and buses with immediate effect.

This is after about six transport operators appeared in court charged for contravening the Road Traffic Act of 2007 by committing various road transportation offences a week ago. 

The main offences had to do with the public transport operators driving without public permits, resulting in their arrests.

Some of them were reported to have told the court that their permits were being processed, while others stated that they were not aware of the expiry dates of their permits. 

One transport operator was reported to have claimed that he could not read what was written on a piece of paper that was given to him by police officers. He further said he would get someone to remind him of the expiry date while others alleged that their employers forced them to operate unroadworthy vehicles, resulting in their arrests. 

In an interview with National Road Transportation Council Chairperson Sihlangu Nhlabatsi, he stated that they discovered that the public transport drivers were not being truthful in their submissions made before court.

He claimed that some of the drivers had not followed the right channels when obtaining the public permits. He alleged that most of them used unscrupulous means to obtain the public permits, hence some of them failed to renew them. 

“There is a serious challenge with these permits as we also established that the drivers apply for permits of routes that do not end in town, including that of Sitjeni to Mvutshini. “Currently, the municipal councils stopped applications for permits as they said the bus ranks were full,” he said.  Nhlabatsi revealed that instead, the operators would then apply for the short-route permits but ended up getting to town.

He stated that the decision to suspend the issuing of permits would assist to alleviate the current situation which included; overtrading and illegal practices, which involved selling of permits, duplications and infighting within the industry.

Recommendations

Meanwhile, according to Nhlabatsi, operators also agreed to centralise cross-border operations where all recommendations for temporary permits would be done at council level. It was also agreed that individual passenger lists be abolished. This means that every passenger service vehicle that would cross the border will have to be recognised by the relevant structures, which will then issue a passenger list to avoid the infighting within the cross-border operators. 

When called for comment regarding the resolution taken by the public transport operators, Minister of Public Works and Transport Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe said he was aware of the ongoing issue of permits. He said he had referred the matter to the board to deal with it and as per his knowledge, they were working on it. 

“They will look into it and compile a proper document that will map a way forward,” he said.

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