Mozambique: Students demand discount on bus fares

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Mozambique: Students demand discount on bus fares

5:02 CAT | 01 Aug 2022

Photo: O País

Students are demanding a 50 per cent discount on bus and minibus fares in Mozambican cities.

The demand was raised on Friday by the president of the National Union of Students, Gimesio Candido, during a Maputo press conference. He said the right to this discount is already enshrined in legal documents, but they are not currently being implemented.

The student demand is particularly relevant because fares are going up as from Monday. Last week, the Maputo Municipal Assembly approved a rise in fares from 12 to 19 meticais (from 19 to 30 US cents, at the current exchange rate) for distances of up to ten kilometres, and from 15 to 22 meticais for longer distances.

Candido said that a 50 per cent discount on fares for students would come as a great relief for many Mozambican families. He said the UNE leadership has attempted to approach the Maputo Metropolitan Transport Agency (AMT) to ask for the registration of all students who could benefit from such a discount.

Candido argued that a student transport card should be issued to students at all levels of Mozambican education allowing them to benefit from the discount scheme.

The government claims that the impact of the latest fare increase will be cushioned by a “passenger subsidy”, but it is far from clear how this will work. It will depend on each passenger having an electronic card which records the journeys made, and which can be credited with money.

An electronic card, known as the “Famba Card” was used on some Maputo buses (but not minibuses) earlier this year, but was widely regarded as a failure.

Source: AIM