Opposition politician Linda Masarira has urged the government to ban the importation of Chinese-made buses by schools, saying they are sub-standard are therefore prone to fatal crashes.
Masarira said American-made buses are safer for schools as they have been developed over the years for that purpose.
This comes after a Higer Bus, made by Higer Bus Company Limited, a Chinese bus manufacturer, was involved in an accident on Friday night in Nyanga resulting in the death of six pupils from Tynwald High School in Harare who were on a trip. Tweeted Masarira:
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The nation is mourning the preventable death of school children because we don’t value the importance of standards. 
This is the greatest difference between Africa and the Developed world. We just do things haphazardly without any standards. When we get pain it hits us hard.
The pain the nation is feeling could have been avoided had we upheld standards.
What is the best standard of the school bus in Zim? Why do all American schools use one bus type when they can afford other expensive elaborate types?
We need to emulate best safety practices! Zimbabwe should stop buying these cheap, useless Chinese buses for schools that have no regard for safety.
Our national vehicle stock will cause more deaths until we understand that we need to do things by standard to ensure the safety of all road users.
The American school bus is yellow (all of them are yellow because yellow is the first colour a human eye can see).
In Zim, any school will paint their bus anyhow. The American school bus is one of the safest vehicles on the road.
The way the body is built is different from these cheap buses. It has been in development for decades.
We need to prioritize the safety of all school-going children by ensuring that they have standard buses which are safe in the case of accidents.
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