By Thandiwe Matsenjwa and Mbali Vilakati
MBABANE – The application for new public transport permits is suspended, with effect from this month (July 2024) to March 2025.
This was said by Minister of Public Works and Transport, Chief Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe, today (Friday, July 12, 2024) during a press briefing held at the Ministry’s conference room in Mbabane.
The minister highlighted that the suspension would be effective from July 2024 to March 2025, with the primary objective of ensuring the safety of public transportation in the country.
Ndwandwe emphasized the need for this measure due to the increasing number of public transport in some parts of the country, particularly highlighting the unregulated operations of kombis, which were no longer confined to bus stations but transport people anywhere they found them, which could put them and other vehicles in danger.
He mentioned that some places had more kombis transporting passengers than the demand of that certain place, while other places were short of transportation.
“It has become evident that the supply of passenger public service vehicles is more than the demand of certain routes wile others remain insufficiently serviced,” the minister said.
Ndwandwe further indicated that during the nine-month suspension period, the Ministry would be undertaking the study of the current supply of passenger vehicles per route in order to make sure that there was order in the operation of public transport vehicles.
He mentioned the upcoming establishment of a committee that will look into all aspects of the public transportation sector. This move aims to gather comprehensive data that will inform future decisions and policies related to public transportation.
Acting Chairperson of the National Road Transportation Council (NRTC), Sabelo Dlamini, described the Ministry’s decision of freezing all issuance of new permits for the nine-month period as a step in the right direction. He said that this period would help them see the issues which needed to be resolved in the transport sector.
“This will help us to look deeply into the industry and how it operates so that if there is something the Ministry does not do accordingly, it can be quickly fixed. As the Ministry has discussed that one of the main issues is that there are too many Kombis operating in same routes. When we continue with the issuance of permits next year, these issues will have bee alleviated,” he said.
