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Mozambique: Minibuses End Strike
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
26 February 2008
Posted to the web 26 February 2008
Maputo
Passenger transport in Maputo and the neighbouring city of Matola was back to normal on Tuesday, after a day in which the great majority of the 5,400 or so minibus-taxis (colloquially known as "chapas") in the two cities were off the roads.
The pretext for the strike was the alleged delay by the government in providing the promised fuel subsidy for the chapas. After the latest rise in the price of diesel, to 35.35 meticais (about 1.47 US dollars) a litre, the government authorized fare increases of up to 50 per cent.
This led to serious rioting on 5 February, and the fare increases were promptly withdrawn. To compensate for the lost fare increase, the government promised to subsidise the fuel used by the chapas, which would cost the old price of 31 meticais a litre.
However, the subsidy will only be available to licensed chapas, and the Federation of Road Transport Associations (FEMATRO) blamed drivers and fare collectors of unlicensed chapas for Monday's strike.
This group intercepted licensed minibuses in central Maputo early on Monday morning, forced them to join the strike, and their passengers to continue their journey on foot. In Matola, some of the unlicensed chapa workers put barricades of burning tyres on the Maputo-South Africa motorway, and halted traffic for a couple of hours.
The chairperson of FEMATRO, Rogerio Manuel, told reporters categorically that no chapa owner who was a member of the associations affiliated in FEMATRO had taken part in the strike. He claimed that only 20 per cent of the minibuses participated in the strike.
Manuel pointed out that here is nothing to prevent any chapa owner from applying for a licence. He supposed that the unlicensed operators refused to apply because they are evading taxes.
Mussagy Gopal and Simiao Sabino, the chairpersons of the Maputo and Matola transport associations, took the same line, insisting that only the unlicensed chapas took part in the strike. Gopal blamed not only unlicensed minibus owners, but also "drivers and fare collectors who were sacked by their employers".
But the reality on the streets was that there were virtually no chapas to be found. Minibuses were running with some semblance of normality along only two of the dozens of routes. This paralysis did not look like the work of only 20 per cent of the chapas.
Asked how such a supposedly small group could pull the vast majority of chapas off the streets, Gopal said they were simply "afraid that their vehicles might be vandalized", if they carried on working.
Some of the licensed chapa owners certainly parked their vehicles for fear that they might come under attack. But from television interviews with chapa drivers it seems that others sympathised with the strike. The repeated pleas by FEMATRO leaders over radio and television that the minibuses should go back to work had little or no effect.
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Transport Minister Antonio Mungwambe announced over Radio Mocambique, that payment of the subsidy (of 4.35 meticais per litre of diesel) would begin in March, backdated to 5 February. However the government will only pay the subsidy to licensed operators (and a sine qua non for obtaining a licence is that the vehicle must have third party insurance) who can prove that they have paid their taxes.
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| Copyright © 2008 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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