Mozambique: Traffic operators strike against social distancing – AIM report

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Mozambique: Traffic operators strike against social distancing – AIM report

4:11 CAT | 24 Apr 2020

FILE- For illustration purposes only. [Fle photo: Lusa]

Some passenger transport operators in the central Mozambican city of Chimoio went on strike on Friday morning in protest at the social distancing measures imposed under the current state of emergency.

To halt the spread of the coronavirus that causes the respiratory disease Covid-19, there are limits on how many passengers a bus or minibus can carry. Vehicles carrying passengers between the distrcts of Manica province, of which Chimoio is the capital, may only carry 15 people.

In protest, the bus owners on Friday morning parked their vehicles, leaving hundreds of citizens stranded. The transport operators say that the limit of 15 people (including the ticket collector) means it is impossible to make a profit. They say the fares from 15 passengers do not cover the costs of fuel and other essential expenses.

The strike is intended to force the government to change its mind and allow the buses to carry more passengers.

The travelling public finds itself grossly inconvenienced. Some would-be pasengers told AIM that they had been waiting for three hours, and had no idea whether they would be able to make their journeys or not.

Maria Justina was trying to reach Machipanda, on the Zimbabwean border, and told AIM “all the drivers say they can’t leave with just 15 passengers, because it won’t cover their costs”. But she believed the goverment is right and the transport operators “should not look only at tgheir profits. What is at stake here is human lives”.

The drivers, however, showed every sign of being intransigent, and of not moving until the government climbs down.

They are defying their own leaders. The chairperson of the Manica Provincial Association of Transport Operators, Filipe Armando, declared that the measures decreed by the government are obligatory. There was no room to change them, since their purpose was to protect human life.

People who wanted to take their buses off the roads were free to do so, he said, “but the important thing is that we should all know we’re in a state of emergency where decisions are taken to protect our lives. We can do nothing but follow the government decree scrupulously”.

The problem for the transport operators is that, if they carry out their threat, they will make no money at all.

Source: AIM