Transport plays a vital role in the running of each and every nation’s economy.The importance of the transport sector has led to many wars on the globe for instance the 1991 Operation Desert Storm which was UN backed ,the 2003 US attack on Iraq,the feud between Iran and Venezuela with USA and its allies.

The introduction of ZUPCO was timely and it doused an economic veld fire that was going to be caused by leaving the transport sector in the hands of the private players who were manipulated to park their vehicles during the failed January 2019 demonstrations.

The private players do hike their fares without taking into consideration the plight of the commuting public and in actual fact they would want them not to report for duty thus crippling the entire economy.The combis owned by private players deployed touts who were harassing and haranguing passengers and it was a sorry state to see how our mothers and sisters having insults hurled at them by the touts who had the temerity and tenacity to mock the civil servants.

The Covid19 saw the ban on combis being effected and this also brought about sanity within our cities.There were challenges here and there which ZUPCO faced due to overwhelming demand but there was nomalcy restored and there is just need to polish up one or two areas like efficiency and enlargement of the fleet.The Covid19 has also exposed how some of our police officers are corrupt as they are being bribed by some uncouth combi owners who are allowed to pass through road blocks in defiance ban of the government ban on the combis.Post Covid 19 does our community deserve to be at the mercy of these touts who have no regard for human dignity and respect for the comminuting public.The government must be left to run the public transport system as it is a vital cog in its goal to bring sanity into the economy as transport does affect all sectors of the economy.The government by controlling public transport sector it will be able to protect commuting public whose salaries will be affected by ever increasing transport costs as the combi operators and their workers will increase the prices willy nilly and the pricing will be determined by the weather conditions and time of the day not economic fundamentals.

Saxon Zvina writes in his own personal capacity and can be contacted @ saxonzvina@gmail.com /Twitter:saxonzvina2