Blue Circle and City Bus operations have been suspended with immediate effect after a horror crash involving coaches from the two companies claimed 13 lives and left scores injured along the Masvingo-Beitbridge Road on Saturday last week.
The collision occurred when a City Bus coach, carrying 25 passengers, struck a donkey and veered into the path of a Blue Circle bus with 43 passengers on board, leading to a head-on collision.
The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development found the two buses had violated regulations on road traffic and safety management.
In a statement, Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhona said that he had issued a directive to the Commissioner of Road Transportation to invoke provisions of Section 17(b)(i) of the Road Motor Transportation Act.
As a result, the licenses of Swaymo Enterprises Pvt Ltd (trading as Blue Circle) and Wipeco Investments (Pvt) Ltd (trading as City Bus) have been immediately suspended from operating their buses on all routes.
Minister Mhona said the City Bus vehicle, registration number AEU5845 and belonging to Wipeco Investments, did not have a valid certificate of fitness thus contravening Section 31 of the Road Traffic Act. He added:
The vehicle also did not have a Speed Limiting Device as required by Section 3(1)(b) of Statutory Instrument 118 of 2023.
In addition, the driver of this bus did not have a valid defensive driving certificate issued by the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe in terms of Section 4(b) of Statutory Instrument 168 of 2006.
Swaymo Enterprises Pvt Ltd did not cooperate with our investigations to establish the compliance status of the driver and vehicle registration number AEU6763.
Therefore, our inference is that the driver was not compliant with the regulatory requirements prescribed under the above-mentioned statutes.
Similarly, the operator was not compliant with the same regulations including Section 12(1) of the Road Motor Transportation Act and thus did not have a route authority authorizing the bus to operate the service.
The above violations by the two bus operators are a serious breach of the terms and conditions of their operators’ licenses issued for them to operate in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Passenger Transport Organisation (ZPTO) vice chairperson Leonard Mukumba told The Herald that they had also suspended the two members as an association. He said:
Sadly, two of our members Blue Circle and City Bus have been suspended for failing to comply with the basic road requirements to operate.
As an association, we commend the Government for suspending the two operators after their findings.
We have also suspended the two pending investigations. The two ceased to be our members the moment they failed to comply and were suspended by the Government.
We urge other members to make sure that they are operating within the confines of the law.
As we go into the Easter Holidays, we encourage authorities to take stern measures provided by our laws against those who wantonly and blatantly violate road traffic rules and regulations.
The safety and security of all commuting public cannot be taken for granted.
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