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Tanzania: Puils-Conductors Row May Balloon Into Full-Scale War
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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
OPINION
22 July 2008
Posted to the web 23 July 2008
Alfred Mlangila
Following the launch of the Secondary Education Development Programme (SEDP), many students have enrolled in ward secondary schools, mostly built in periphery suburbs.
Thus students have to travel long distances, sometimes changing buses to and from school. This has exacerbated the chronic transport problems students in Dar es Salaam are facing.
Consequently, it has become the norm now to witness confrontations between students and daladala conductors every day. Anyone using public transport is a witness to the ever-growing antagonism.
A student from Biafra High School in Kinondoni confided in me last week that almost every male student now carries razorblades which they use for defence should a fight ensue between them and conductors
He said others carry knives while others have special pockets on the inside of their trousers where they keep machetes. The less courageous carry with them screwdrivers which they use as a threatening weapon whenever conductors try to push them around.
Giving his own account he said two years ago when he was in Form Three, a conductor stopped him from boarding a Mwenge-Kariakoo daladala and when he insisted on getting in, he was pushed off and the conductor ordered the driver to drive away.
The student fell on the ground and unfortunately slid helplessly under the bus where he was run over by the rear wheels. His left leg was broken and he was hospitalised for more than three months.
Asked whether any legal action was taken against the bus driver and the conductor, he said they were released after paying fines whose figure he could not remember.
But his fellow students did not take it lightly. They organised themselves, ambushed the driver and the conductor and gave them a thorough that left the conductor unconscious and the driver bleeding profusely.
Another telling episode occurred at Tabata Kimanga in Dar es Salaam earlier this month. A group of students surrounded a bus conductor and beat him, tearing off his clothes until he was almost naked.
His driver had already taken to his heels immediately after the youths surrounded the bus. He never came back to rescue his colleague from the mob. Passers-by just stood by, some even encouraging the boys to beat the conductor even harder, saying they are mistreating students.
Investigations have revealed that students have formed groups of avengers whose task is to take revenge on bus conductors and drivers who rough up students.
It is believed the groups carry all sorts of weapons and it is feared that some are attempting to manufacture homemade pistols for the purpose of instilling discipline in bus conductors.
This really shows that something is wrong with good governance in this country. Having waited in vain for the government to control the daladala drivers and conductors the students have decided to take the law in their hands.
Soon the animosity between bus conductors and students will swell into full-blown war at bus stops. The consequences will definitely be disastrous.
Although the Government believed it was helping students by imposing the Sh50 fare, the fact is such rate has only incited fighting between the students and uncouth conductors.
For a mini-bus carrying 16 passengers, the conductor can stand the idea of letting in ten students thus leaving only six seats for adults. A bus operating the Ubungo-Kariakoo route, a distance of about 15 kilometres where a passenger pays Sh300, the conductor will collect not more than Sh2,000 from the adults and Sh500 from the students.
An efficient minibus uses an average of 2.2 litres of fuel from Ubungo to Kariakoo, spending Sh4,840, (assuming a litre of diesel costs Sh2,200), thus making a loss of Sh1,500 on each trip. This is what angers conductors.
The Surface and Marine Transport Regulatory Authority (Sumatra) has recommended that beginning August 1, this year passengers of the Ubungo-Kariakoo route will pay Sh500 and students Sh100.
A minibus carrying six students and ten adults will generate Sh600 and Sh5,000 respectively, making a total sum of Sh5,600 for a trip whose fuel cost alone amounts to Sh4,840.
Thus one way of dealing with the transport problem facing students, though a bitter one, is to ensure that students pay between 50-75 per cent of the fare paid by adults.
Such percentages will enable conductors to make enough money to recover their running cost, thus minimizing their animosity towards students.
In other cities municipal councils have an arrangement of providing subsidy to bus operators who provide transport to students. The same can be worked out in Dar es Salaam.
Whoever thinks big busses program will solve the transport problem facing students in Dar es Salaam is wrong. This is an era of liberalisation and no capitalist provides services for less than the real value.
The big buses programme will drive the mini-buses out of Dar roads, but their owners will soon feel the pinch which was felt by minibus operators. The animosity will resume again. Let us find a lasting solution to save the city from needless conflicts.
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Mr Mlangila is a political and social analyst.
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