The government has been told to raise bus fares within 14 days or there will be no buses, the Chairman of the Botswana Bus Operators Association, Tirafalo Mponang, has confirmed.

Infact, the bus operators wanted to "park" their buses yesterday, but government officials had to run helter-skelter convincing the operators that something would be done.

"Officials of the Department of Road Transport and Safety held a meeting with us on Monday night and said something would be done in the near future," Mponang said. "They will be working on calculations with input from our representatives."

The bus operators demand a 3 thebe per kilometre raise because of ever-rising diesel prices. Mponang said that they had requested a 20 thebe per kilometre hike in March before diesel prices reached the present P9.48 per litre.

But he admits that 20 thebe might have been too much. "It was going to force people who commute from outside Gaborone to move to the city, killing business for our members," Mponang said.

The Department of Road Transport and Safety last increased bus fares by 13 thebe/kilometre on 26 May. Taxi and combi fares also went up. Mmegi's attempts to get a comment from the Public Relations Officer in the Ministry of Works and Transport, Samuel Mbaiwa, were futile as his phone rang unanswered.