Zupco is like a dead man walking: Commuters

Zim Now Writer

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company stood firm, providing the urban population with a reliable transport.

Zupco also then was the sole operator which allowed to operate intercity buses. Private commuter operators were banned with authorities saying allowing them would make it very difficult to enforce Covid-19 regulations and protocols.

The State-owned public transporter itself brought in new buses, especially from Belarus, boosting the numbers that were already there through the franchise system.

“By brother Zupco is all but dead. It used to be the pride of the country’s mass public transport system but it is dead. No timetables, and at times no buses at all. The whole of last week, I never saw a single Zupco bus on the St Mary’s and Zengeza routes. I am told the white buses come very early before they take up their highway routes. But all those on the Zupco franchise were nowhere to be seen. What pains us is that with our poor salaries, we found the Zupco buses at least affordable at US$0.50 where other operators charge up to US$2 for a one-way trip into the city,” moaned Themba Makuku, who works at the Siyaso Complex in Magaba, Mbare.

The existing bus ranks were in a sorry state with collapsed shelters. Zupco put up ticketing offices from where the commuting public would buy tickets before joining different queues.

These ticketing offices have since closed and conductors sell tickets on board buses. Not that the system is not functional but perhaps the investment that went into building the ticketing offices cannot just go down the drain.

Jacob Rundaza, who lives in Manyame Park Phase 3, St Mary’s in Chitungwiza feels there are very few positives about Zupco. Money just goes down the drain. “Instead of renovating existing structures at bus termini, Zupco had new ticketing offices put up but these have since closed. All the money that was used to build these has been lost because the structures are not in use. I think there is need to probe the goings-on at Zupco. Something is very wrong somewhere. Zupco is like a dead man walking, headed for sure collapse and disintegration,” he told Zim Now.

Readers who may have travelled to Europe and other places would understand the prepaid system works very well there for commuters. One can travel across Europe by train or bus as long as your card has credit.

Zupco introduced the tap card, in conjunction with a reputable Zimbabwean commercial bank, where passengers would pre-pay for their transport. Even at that point, the buses which had the tap card scanning machines were very few. Those that had them soon found them vandalized as bus crews often preferred cash, for some weird reasons.

Sakile Jack, who lives in Epworth, one of Harare’s poorest suburbs, said: “I bought the tap card and at times I found it very useful. However, after putting all my transport money in the tap card, I at times had to borrow money for alternative transport after failing to get the tap card buses. Sometimes, conductors would claim that the tap card was not working, forcing me to use money meant for other purposes to pay for my trip to work or back home in the evening,” she told Zim Now.

Efforts to get a comment from Zupco were fruitless as questions sent to the transport operator had not been responded to at the time of writing, despite several follow-ups.