Maputo — Taxi drivers, passengers and trade unions alike describe the 50 per cent increase in minibus taxi fares as "suffocating", warning that most people will be unable to afford it, reports Friday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".

In response to two increases in fuel prices in June, transport operators demanded a 60 per cent increase in the fares of the minibuses that provide much of the passenger transport in Mozambican cities - although diesel only rose by 42 per cent, and fuel accounts for about a third of the costs of running a taxi.

In negotiations with the government, the Federation of Road Transport Operators (FEMATRO) grudgingly accepted a fare rise of just 50 per cent - so as from Monday the fare in the minibuses (known colloquially as "chapas") will rise from 5,000 meticais (20 US cents) to 7,500.

This means that a return daily journey will cost each passenger 330,000 meticais a month, and for those who have to make connections it will cost twice as much - 660,000 meticais, which is more than half of the statutory minimum wage of 1,277,138 meticais a month recently passed by the government. Even drivers employed by the minibus owners are worried by the fare rise. They argue that it is wrong for the owners to believe that they will make more money with the increased fare, because it will probably scare away many passengers.

Passengers say this will definitely lead to the collapse of their meagre family savings, while the trade unions argue that it will have "a disastrous impact" on low paid workers.

One taxi driver, Nataniel Mucino, declared "This will be a heavy burden for the common citizen to bear but, on the other hand, it would be impossible to continue working with the current cost of fuel". "For us to operate the whole day we have to put at least 700,000 or 800,000 meticais worth of fuel in the tank, and still hand one million meticais over to the owner, which, under the old fares, would only be possible by working 15-hour days", he said.

For his part, Lourenco Chivangue, another taxi driver, predicted that, because people will be unable to pay, they will ask drivers to accept 5,000 meticais, and because of the competition for passengers they will have no alternative but to take this.

"People cannot afford this burden because wages are low, and what will happen is that they will bring 5,000 meticais and we will not leave them behind, because we need to cover the money demanded by the boss", he said.

Implicitly, both drivers blamed the greed of the owners for the current problems.

Other citizens blamed the government, accusing it of doing nothing to defend the interests of the poor. For the privately- owned chapas dominate Maputo transport - the public bus company, TPM, is on the verge of bankruptcy and has less than 50 buses available to cover the whole Maputo-Matola connurbation.

Deolinda Bombi, a market vendor, said that she has to pay from her meagre earnings her child's "chapa" to school every day.

"I think that the government should intervene to minimise people's suffering. How will I be able to send my children to school with this transport problem, since public transport scarcely exists ?", she asked.

Teresa Zunguza, another vendor, lamented that it will be now more difficult than before to send her two children to school with her earnings.

"This will only suffocate the poor because sometimes there are no vacancies for our children at schools near home, and the only alternative is to send them wherever we can. With this increase in the fares, some children will not be able to go to school. I have two children who must catch a chapa every day, and I will not be able to afford it", she lamented.

The spokesperson for the main Mozambican Trade Union Federation, the OTM, Francisco Mazoio, noted that "with the rise in the price of fuel it was predictable that everything would increase in a chain reaction. Now it is transport, and then other commodities will follow. Imagine a worker who has to catch two taxis a day to get to work. This will be a heavy burden, difficult to bear", he said.

He added "in some countries, government subsidises fuel for the agriculture and transport sectors, thus making sure this burden does not fall on the poor when the price of fuels rises".

Mazoio urged the government to consider measures to minimise these "disastrous" effects on the pockets of the poor.