2016 the worst year for Mozambican long distance transport companies – FEMATRO

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2016 the worst year for Mozambican long distance transport companies – FEMATRO

8:20 CAT | 15 Dec 2016

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The Federation of Mozambican Road Transport Operators (FEMATRO) has classified 2016 as the worst year in recent history for long distance transport companies.

Interviewed in Wednesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, the Fematro chairperson, Castigo Nhamane, said that at this time of year, with the Xmas and New Year holidays approaching, there is usually great demand for inter-provincial transport. But not this year.

Nhamane said that in previous years an average of 50 to 60 buses a day in mid-December left the main terminal in Maputo, heading for the other provinces. “But right now the situation is really critical”, he exclaimed. “There are fewer than ten buses a day leaving the terminal. This is bad”.

“The health of the inter-provincial and inter-district transport services is going from bad to worse”, he continued. “I should say that 2016 has been the worst year in the transport sector, and we don’t know what’s going to happen from now on”,

Nhamane blamed the low demand for long distance transport partly on the economic situation, and partly on the insurrection by the Renamo rebels. Anyone travelling from Maputo to the north of the country must pass through two areas where reasonably safe transport is only possible in convoys under armed escort.

Despite this, the transporters are ready to work, said Nhamane, and if, by any chance, there is a sudden rush of people wishing to travel to the central or northern provinces, FEMATRO members will drive them there.

He pointed out that FEMATRO associates never gave up. It is not the buses that are missing, but the passengers.

Nhamane urged President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama to meet and agree to return the country to peace. Only then, he believed, would the situation improve for transport companies.

Source: AIM