Pay up or stay home

Long-distance bus drivers once again succeeded in hiking their prices over the festive season in a bid to maximise profits from travellers keen to reach family and friends over the holiday. This has been the norm for many years.

The hiking of prices during the festive season is said to be attributed to the fact that the demand for public transport is high and the bus drivers take advantage of the situation. Some also allege that the vehicle owner never gets to see the income from the increased fares and that drivers themselves hike the rates and pocket the excess.

Although a number of bus associations have been registered with the mandate to oversee issues pertaining to public transport, the issue of hiking prices remains a challenge and Namibians continue to suffer as a solution is long overdue. In December, 2014 the Namibia Bus and Taxi Association (Nabta) launched a tariff guide in order to address the situation. The guide consists of tariffs as per the Transport Act, Act 74 of 1977 Section 12 (a) and Section 12 (12) for long-distance passenger transport as authorised and approved by the works and transport ministry. At the time of the launch of this guide it was affirmed that the issue of upping tariffs over peak season will come to an end but, sadly, this has not been the case.

At one point, the police became involved, questioning passengers at road blocks as to what they had paid for their journey. If they were overcharged, they were immediately refunded by the driver but this measure was however, short-lived.

This has led to people questioning whether there is any government institution with the ability to change the status quo.





This past week a number of people shared their experiences with Namibian Sun regarding the overcharging by public transport drivers, calling for the issue to be brought to an end.

People who had travelled from the northern towns to Windhoek and also from the capital to the north, said they paid twice the normal fare as they had no alternative, or cheaper, means of transport available.

The normal fare for the Windhoek-Oshakati route is N$250, however, during the festive season some people were forced to pay up to N$500 for a single seat. These travellers are held ransom by this behaviour as they are vulnerable to other drivers who may or may not take them on board.

One of the people who complained said that he paid up to N$430 from Windhoek to Ondangwa saying that he was even lucky to have received a seat at that price.

“I paid N$430 from Windhoek to Ondangwa and I was only lucky to get that seat because the other people who wanted a seat on that bus had less money,” the traveller said.

He wanted to know why the government is quiet on the matter.

“People have complained about this for many years but nothing has been done. It is the same situation every year. I just want to know what government's plan is in rectifying this issue. Our economy is already doing badly and the country does not have money to uplift its people from poverty,” he said.

In an interview with Namibian Sun, Nabta acting president Jeffrey Platt said that the association condemns the hiking of prices, but there is nothing they can do to act as people do not lodge complaints at their offices.

Platt said people can take down the registration number of the bus and forward their complaint to the Nabta office. Action can then be taken which could include the termination of the bus owner's permit.

“To be honest with you, people are not coming to us to report these matters. We hear about the ripping off by drivers but as long as we do not have concrete evidence, we cannot act. We do not need a lot of complaints, one will do and can we make a good example of that offender,” Platt remarked.

KENYA KAMBOWE