Council takes back Fourth Street Terminus from touts

… plans to regain control of Copacabana, Rezende, Charge Office and Market Square

The Harare City Council has regained control of the Simon Muzenda Bus Terminus (formerly Fourth Street Bus Terminus) from touts who have been running it for years.

The touts have been collecting thousands of dollars in fees from transporters.

Currently, council, which is operating the rank from 8am to 4pm is collecting over US$800 daily in rank use fees and is mulling an operation to wrest four other bus termini in the city centre — Market Square, Rezende, Charge Office and Speke Avenue (also known as Copacabana).

In an interview with The Sunday Mail, HCC town clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said: “Every bus terminus from now on will be controlled by the City of Harare. We will be responsible for collecting fees from all ranks, instead of the touts.

“We are now in charge of the Fourth Street rank and per day, we are collecting around US$800.”

Chisango said council had put in place plans to extend the operating hours.

“Now, we are looking to extend our working hours beyond 4pm as we have noted that the rank is busier after that time. We are targeting to work up to 8pm.

“As we are now in charge of the Fourth Street rank, we are looking forward to doing the same at Rezende, Copacabana and Charge Office, then we will finish off at Market Square. This is just us taking control of everything.

“Basically, we are restoring order. We want to use our assets to generate revenue so that we can spruce them up.”

Eng Chisango added: “For the safety of our employees, we will build guardrooms and will have cash-in-transit vehicles collecting money from the ranks at regular intervals throughout the day.”