Mischevious men have taken advantage of the transport crisis to molest women who board the cheap but overcrowded ZUPCO buses.
This happens especially during the morning and evening peak hours when the few ZUPCO buses on the roads are overwhelmed with human traffic.
A victim of the abuse, Harare based citizen identified as Chipo Gwasira spoke to H-Metro. She said:
Yesterday there was pressure at the bus, I was trying to enter the bus and ended up being fondled on my private parts but never saw the person who did it.
As women, we do not have to be victims of bus pressure but we do not have control over it since the bus is the only affordable means of transportation because kombis are now expensive.
The transport blues have also negatively affected school-going children as they end up getting to school late. A concerned Harare resident had this to say:
Children are now in danger as some of them end up getting home late because of transport chaos, yesterday I saw some child in school uniform trying to force himself into the bus but ended up being pushed away by the conductor.
The government should allocate buses only meant for children in school uniforms for the safety of our children.
ZUPCO buses were re-introduced in January after the deadly fuel protests which had been ignited by a sharp rise in transport fares.
Wary of a repeat of the riots, the government immediately announced a 50% reduction of the ZUPCO bus fares after another fuel price hike was announced on Tuesday this week.