Mozambique: Bus, minibus operators under ‘great pressure’

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Mozambique: Bus, minibus operators under ‘great pressure’

1:48 CAT | 20 Apr 2020

File photo: Lusa

Bus and minibus operators in Mozambique are working under ‘great pressure’, due to the restrictions on passenger numbers the government imposed to reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the country, the president of the sector association told Lusa on Monday.

“It is terrible pressure, these numbers do not cover our expenses,” Castigo Nhamane, president of the Mozambican Federation of Road Transport Associations (Fematro) said.

Much of Mozambique’s population has to leave home every day to find food and in the large urban centres of the country collective transport is usually overcrowded.

The state of emergency in Mozambique initially forced van and bus operators to take only a third of the capacity, which led some private individuals to stop activities for alleged damages, aggravating the already known transport problem in the Mozambican capital.

“This measure was impossible to practice. For example, in a 15-seater vehicle, only a collector and driver could carry three passengers,” Nhamane said.

“For a 10-meticais trip, 30 would be charged. That does not buy a litre of diesel. It was impossible,” he said.

The government-backed down and alleviated the measures of the state of emergency, now allowing occupation up to the limit of seating, but no more than that, as is customary – and imposing the use of masks in public transportation.

“Even with this U-turn, with seating only, we continuously lose money day after day,” he added.

“We have to manage the financial crisis in exchange for the prevention of diseases because life is priceless,” Nhamane said.

Despite the timid prevention measures, which include hand washing and cleaning buses at the transport terminal, if the new coronavirus is on the loose, it seems to have room to spread.

On a tour of the main roads in Maputo, fewer than half of the passengers on buses and vans were wearing masks or any other kind of protection.

Mozambique has officially recorded 39 cases of Covid-19, with no deaths.

Worldwide, the Covid-19 pandemic has already claimed more than 164,000 lives and infected more than 2.3 million people in 193 countries and territories. More than 525,000 patients have been considered cured.

Source: Lusa