Mozambique: Chapas back on the roads of Nampula after meeting

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Mozambique: Chapas back on the roads of Nampula after meeting

3:34 CAT | 24 Mar 2022

Photo: Conselho dos Serviços Provinciais de Representação do Estado - Nampula

Passenger minibuses in Nampula are back on the road, charging a 10 meticais fare. In the meantime, a multi-sectoral team is studying a proposal to increase fares to 15 meticais, and will then submit it to the Municipal Assembly.

After a day and a half without the ‘chapas’, Nampula Provincial Secretary of State, Mety Gondola on Tuesday met the president of the Association of Road Transporters (ASTRA) and the city’s mayor to hammer out a solution.

In a meeting lasting three hours, it was decided to suspend the stoppage and create a multi-sectoral commission to examine the transporters’ proposal to increase the tariff from 10 to 15 meticais, hear stakeholders, and then submit it to the Municipal Assembly for consideration and approval or otherwise. Meanwhile, carriers are back on the road and charging the 10 meticais fare.

“We’re satisfied. In a little while, we will meet again with the transporters in order to resume talks,” said transporters’ representative Luís Vasconcelos after the meeting on Tuesday.

The mayor of Nampula, Paulo Vahanle, was a man of few words in a city that no longer has public transport managed by the municipality.

“I had to take a machimbombo from the Municipal Assembly to serve the citizens. I had to take the Song and Dance ‘machimbombo’ [from the group] for it to circulate on the public road and minimise the problem – which indicates that more transport capacity would be highly desirable,” he said.

For Secretary of State Mety Gondola, it is only through dialogue that a lasting solution to the problems can be found.

“The goal of the meeting was to understand what was actually happening and to verify from the other bodies and stakeholders what was actually possible, so that we could facilitate a solution and respond to the need to restore transport in the city, to ensure that transport and goods circulate while we find ad hoc responses or medium and long-term solutions,” Gondola explained.

By Ricardo Machava

Source: O País