By THEMBEKA DLAMINI | 2018-11-18
Public service vehicle (PSV) owners are livid and the commuter will pay the price.
Tuesday is slated as D-day as public transport operators plan to park their vehicles in protest against promised payments after transporting voters to nominations prior to the elections which never reached their pockets.
An undetermined proportion of 300 owners of 525 vehicles have since Thursday been allegedly lodging their complaints with the Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA) after what they termed to be daylight robbery of their payment for transporting members of the public during the recent national elections.
They voiced their disgruntlement after being informed that the money they have been waiting for the last three and a half months has been reduced from that which they expected. They said they have been requesting a meeting to voice their disgruntlement to no avail and give their executive until Tuesday to meet them or else hell will break loose.
Prior to the elections, PSV owners were invited to avail their vehicles to the Elections and Boundaries Commission with the aim of transporting voters on the different days of the election process.
Voters were transported on the two nomination days, primary and secondary election days. Public transport operators were promised E1 600 per day per vehicle to counter wear and tear. According to Treasurer Muzi Masuku, there were 525 vehicles availed.
He said payment started last week and operators should expect payment going forward as this exercise could be completed anytime and payments would reflect on their accounts, according to the time it takes for payments to reflect in their accounts.
Those who use Standard Bank have received payment and some are said to be disgruntled and as such, many have, since Thursday, been flocking to the Manzini branch situated at the city centre Post Office Building. They said they want answers which have either been unsatisfactory or not forthcoming, depending on the time they visited the offices.
operate
Ten owners were approached by this publication following their visit to the offices and none were happy. “We have only received E1 400 per vehicle and are told the deducted amount is for administrative costs,” a transport owner from Manzini said. His vehicles operate within the Lubombo and Shiselweni regions from the Manzini bus rank.
He availed his three vehicles for the process and his expected payment has been deducted by E2 400 which he says is a lot as it equates to one vehicle working for free for a whole day and a half. His counterpart who has kombis which operate the Pigg’s Peak route said he took out his seven vehicles from their normal routes and was paid E5 600 less than expected. “With this charge, I will have to pay the office E18 000 in all for all the 13 days my kombis operated during the elections,” he said, adding that he was really disappointed.
He said they sacrificed their vehicles which normally operate on tarred roads and put them on gravel which has long term effects as their roadworthiness is expensive to maintain. At noon on Friday, parts of the Mbabane bus rank came to a standstill when operators chucked out their counterpart’s vehicles from the Manzini platform.
They further stated that no kombi from the Manzini section of the Swaziland Local Kombi Association should operate as their troubles stemmed from their principals. The highly volatile situation was rescued by the arrival of several owners of the kombis and peace prevailed. The same situation occurred within the Manzini bus rank but was soon countered when sense prevailed.
Over E1.3 million fees for 13 days angers operator
Livid operators say they are shocked that their executive wants to pocket E1 365 000 for the 13 days they availed their public service vehicles.
“It is daylight robbery because we pay them E20 rank fee per day just for the use of the Manzini and Mbabane bus ranks each,” they said. So far, using the figures availed by the executive, from the nomination stage pay-out, the executive’s administration fee on operators was E420 000.
This is because operators were paid E1 400 for the four days their vehicles were utilised. From the 525 vehicles, the association deducted E200 per vehicle per day for four days amounting to the E420 000. In total, operators said they expected to be paid for 13 days work, which means their association will deduct E1 365 000 as administrative fee.
Deduction contractual - National chairperson
The Swaziland Local Transport Association National Chairman Mandla Dlamini says operators were appraised about the deduction that would be made on their payments.
“They all have contracts where this is spelt out,” he said during a telephonic interview yesterday. He said the only operators who were disgruntled were those not of their association as they were in constant contact with them.
“I don’t even think those people are our members or had vehicles used during the elections,” he said. Further, he explained that those who assumed that the issue was with the Manzini Branch were ill-informed as everything was done through the national office.
“The money was deposited into the national executive’s account held at standard bank and as such payments are being made from there.”
Dlamini alleged that their suspicions were that the people causing trouble were part of a group who want to upheaval their association with the aim of getting its control. Further, Dlamini clarified that they had 70 vehicle owners in Hhohho with 68 already paid in full.
“The two failed to avail their account details because we are paying through internet transfer. So until they avail their particulars, their payments will remain uncompleted.”
Explaining why the payments, though deposited into their accounts over a month ago was only paid to operators during the last three days, he said they had agreed with operators that they would be paid in full for all the three events, namely, elections nominations, primary and secondary voting. “Seeing as government has financial issues and operators were becoming restless, we came to the agreement that they should be paid the part-payment and we would be patient with the next one.”
Operators said they were of the idea that since the money had stayed so long in their accounts as it was said to have been transferred over a month ago, the interest accrued on it should have been more than enough to cover administration costs.
Four executives’ vehicles chucked out of Mbabane rank
When word got out that transport operators would receive deducted payments, kombis belonging to executive members were chucked out of the Mbabane bus rank with a vow that they would only return once payments were received.
From Thursday, operations within the bus rank have been out of sorts.
“We requested that all kombis owned by members of the executive should leave the bus rank,” said a driver found at the bus rank who did not want his name published.
At around noon on Friday, more kombis belonging to some of the Manzini branch of SLTA members who are not part of the executive were also chucked out as other operators felt they were part of the alleged scam to steal their promised money.
None of them were permitted to get on the Manzini bound loading platform as only those from Mbabane were given the privilege.
It was only after the arrival of several owners who mediated on the situation that things went back to normal. As soon as word reached operators in Manzini that their kombis were not permitted to get passengers from the bus rank, those which affiliate with the Mbabane office were stopped.
It was, however, a very brief altercation as everyone was pacified before things got out of hand.
When asked for the reason behind his vehicle(s) being chucked out of the Mbabane Bus Rank, SLTA Secretary General Ambrose Dlamini said he was not aware as no complaint had been lodged against him.
“I am still waiting to hear reasons as there are rules and regulations which govern our operations. Vehicles are not just chucked out at a whim as there has to be due process such as an investigation. Even then, the procedure calls for the Mbabane office to inform me of any decision they make against my vehicle. Admissible reasons include faulty paperwork or if the kombi is found encroaching on a route outside of its permitted one,” he said and further referred questions to their Mbabane counterparts.
In the same vein, Chairperson Mandla Dlamini said vehicles can only be stopped from operating through a court order and the affected owners should make means of taking the matter to court as they were being disadvantaged financially.
He said he suspected that there was something personal against the three as his four vehicles were not targeted during the stand-off.
When Mbabane branch executive member Sipho 'Tsetla' Bhembe was asked to give reasons why the four vehicles belonging to three executives were barred from using the Manzini bound platform, he said he was not made aware of it as he was in South Africa. He said he had only heard of the threat of violence which happened in the capital and hub bus ranks.
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