GOVT CONSIDERS ENDING FULL CAPACITY LOAD IN PUBLIC TRANSPORT

NHLANGANO – Should there be no change in terms of compliance with COVID-19 regulations within the public transport industry, government could end the loading to full capacity.

Currently, public transport operators are allowed to load their vehicles to full capacity following months of a 60 per cent loading capacity that was imposed at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Threat

The threat by government to stop public service vehicles from loading to full capacity was shared by a source who had attended a meeting last Tuesday, where government had engaged the Eswatini National Road Transport Council (NRTC) on the non-compliance with COVID-19 regulations. It was stated that government raised a concern that there was non-compliance in public transport vehicles following the decline in cases, a situation which changed drastically after the country was hit by the second wave. Passengers have also been raising concerns that they were not being sanitised when boarding public transport vehicles. Also, it was further stated that even the operators were not wearing their face masks properly.

According to the source, it was learnt during the meeting that some of the drivers would communicate along the way concerning roadblocks ahead in order for them to sanitise the passengers and further wear face masks. It was also reliably gathered that in the meeting, which was attended by NRTC President Sihlangu Nhlabatsi and some officials from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport among others, it was discussed that the public transport vehicles were becoming COVID-19 hot spots.

“They further discussed that there should be fines for those who do not have sanitisers and that police would ask passengers if they were sanitised. If they were not, then the driver would be fined,” narrated the source. It was gathered that in the meeting, Nhlabatsi asked for some time to monitor compliance within the industry prior to government acting on its threat to stop the loading of public service vehicles to full capacity. When called for comment, Nhlabatsi confirmed that there were ongoing discussions to that effect, but would not share them in detail for now. He also confirmed to have asked for some time to monitor public transport vehicles’ compliance with COVID-19 regulations.

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