It is devastating and worrying how the police and commuter omnibus operators are playing cops and robbers around the CBD at the expense of the people.
Ever since the Covid-19 induced lockdown in March, Kombis were banned from operating as they do not adhere to the Covid-19 regulations of social distancing and sanitization.
However due to the economic meltdown of the country, a lot of kombi operators found it hard to feed their families and when the lockdown regulations were relaxed around July, they then illegally went back on the roads.
Due to shortages of Zupco Buses (the only legal transportation), people are resorting to kombis so that they don’t get late to their respective workplaces.
If the police discover these kombis they then chase them around breaking their windows and screens and during the process, it is the passengers that get hurt.
To survive this, Kombi operators have replaced glass windows with cardboard windows so that when the police attack the kombis, they will not lose much.
Recently, 263times met a Kombi with screens (pictured) around the windows which is meant to avoid the police from shattering the glasses. This looks like a clever idea but has negative effects to passengers in case the vehicle is involved in an accident.
This calls for an emergency dialogue between the Ministry of Transport and Kombi operators because at the end of the day, it is the general public that suffer.
