27 June 2008
Maputo — Very few of the new buses ordered by the Mozambican government to strengthen the capacity of the Maputo public bus company, TPM, have so far arrived in the Mozambican capital, much to the annoyance of TPM, according to a report in Friday's issue of the independent newsheet "Mediafax".
TPM says there is nothing it can do to speed up arrival of the vehicles, since the deal was signed at the highest level, between the Mozambican Transport Ministry and the manufacturer, the German company Volkswagen.
The government went into negotiations with Volkswagen shortly after the riots of 5 February cruelly exposed the weaknesses of Maputo transport. On that day rioters effectively shut Maputo down in protest against an increase of up to 50 per cent in the fares charged by the privately-owned minibuses which provide much of the city's passenger transport.
With TPM operating no more than 40 operational buses at any one time to cover the whole of the Maputo-Matola connurbation, citizens were forced to use the unsafe and overcrowded minibuses (known colloquially as "chapas").
So the government ordered 100 new Volkswagen buses, mostly for Maputo. But to date, only 15 have arrived, although all 100 were supposed to be delivered by September, now only three months away.
According to TPM the problem lies with the Volkswagen agent in South Africa, who is in charge of assembling the buses which are then driven to Maputo. Nonetheless TPM is optimistic that the agent will pick up the pace, and comply with the deadline.
"We'll see whether we have all the buses here by September", said TPM spokesperson, Boaventura Lipanga. "We trust in the agent and in respect for the contracts signed".
Once the new buses do arrive, TPM stands a good chance of dominating the Maputo passenger transport market, relegating the "chapas" to a secondary role. This prospect has infuriated the Mozambican Federation of Road Transport Associations (FEMATRO), which represents the private operators.
FEMATRO has alleged that buying the new buses is just money down the drain, since TPM will not be able to maintain them. It also claims that the Volkswagen buses are not appropriate for Mozambican roads.
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