25 June 2009
editorial
In yesterday's edition, Mmegi carried the story of our photographer based in our Francistown office, Moreri Sejakgomo.
Sejakgomo was reportedly assaulted for having pointed out a worn-out tyre on a bus owned by a prominent public transporter, Bamangwato Bus Tours.
Bamangwato is not new to the industry. It is an experienced transporter of people enjoying major routes such as Gaborone-Francistown and the Gaborone-Phikwe. The report, if true, would indicate a general collapse of professional standards from a transporter who should know better and offer better.
The actions of assistants in the bus, and their reaction to a genuine concern by a fee-paying customer expose their somewhat cavalier attitude to an otherwise very important aspect of their trade; transport safety.
Public transporters, least of all major ones like Bamangwato, cannot afford to handle customer concerns with the disdain reportedly shown by Bamangwato workers. Their behaviour borders on gangsterism, to say the least. It was criminal. That such an experienced transporter as Bamangwato could countenance such behaviour beats the imagination.
Firstly, public transporters need to understand that the lives of human beings are much more important than every other thing.
Public transporters should therefore be more serious about their job than any other transporter. They should be more serious than transporters of goods because not a single object is more precious than a life.
Secondly, public transporters need to understand that they deal with human beings, not objects to be used and abused when and how it suits ill-trained and somewhat ill-disciplined bus assistants. A customer, unlike an object such as an orange or a mango, has the right to express their views when they are unhappy.
A passenger or potential passenger is not the exclusive property of a transporter even when he or she is already seated. It is not up to the bus owner to decide when a customer should express his or her views and in what method.
If there is a major lesson public transporters should learn, it is this: public transport users do not by default, suddenly turn into the exclusive property of a bus owner as soon as they step into a bus. They remain human beings with the same right to think, talk freely and act freely as they would outside the bus as long as they are not misbehaving.
Lastly, it is important to wake the transport authorities up to this behaviour. It is time that the inability of a public transporter to serve the customer should be used as a key aspect of deciding whether to grant a licence or not. It is only when this aspect is taken seriously from the authorities that bus owners would give it the attention it deserves.
Todays'thought
"Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value."
- Peter F. Drucker
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