Nabta, transport fares and the safety of passengers

NABTA has done little to ensure that passengers on taxis for both short and long distances travel safely.

I have travelled across this country so many times and have seldom experienced any good service that derives from Nabta’s efforts. I am talking here of issues ranging from luggage-grabbing by ‘bus-boys’ to dumping passengers laden with their loads for which they paid on the roadsides in the dead of the night.Then there is the issue of fares; all we see on TV is a suited Nabta official declaring/imposing the new fares to different destinations across the country and for short distances within the reasonable radius of town.This normally ensues at the instance of a fuel hike.My simple question is how does Nabta arrive at these fares? Consumers need certainty – we do not need officials who use funny mathematical calculations to trick us into thinking it’s all fair.Nabta must tell us their mode of determining fares.And we as consumers must be satisfied that the mechanism is unarguably fair and justifiable, taking all relevant factors into account.Nabta has also failed to procure scales to weigh luggage.Bus drivers simply guess the amount one has to pay for their load.Nobody really knows the criterion they use to figure the amount out.And in the majority of cases those who tell you how much to pay for your load are illiterate.Anybody can already see how weak Nabta has b ecome.Nabta must pick up its pace to ensure proper service or must just cease to exist.At roadblocks traffic officers simply talk to the driver and sometimes ask for passenger IDs while standing next to the bus.My experience on the many buses I have travelled on reveals that overloading is taking place.There is usually a co-driver who sits on some empty cold drink case in a row on the bus.Upon approaching a roadblock he hides and it certainly works because no traffic officer dares to climb on the bus to actually see how passengers are loaded.Passengers lack the temerity to alert the Police at the roadblocks to this fact because of fear of retribution.It is time Police officers at roadblocks begin to do their job right.Ntelamo Ntelamo KhomadalI am talking here of issues ranging from luggage-grabbing by ‘bus-boys’ to dumping passengers laden with their loads for which they paid on the roadsides in the dead of the night.Then there is the issue of fares; all we see on TV is a suited Nabta official declaring/imposing the new fares to different destinations across the country and for short distances within the reasonable radius of town.This normally ensues at the instance of a fuel hike.My simple question is how does Nabta arrive at these fares? Consumers need certainty – we do not need officials who use funny mathematical calculations to trick us into thinking it’s all fair.Nabta must tell us their mode of determining fares.And we as consumers must be satisfied that the mechanism is unarguably fair and justifiable, taking all relevant factors into account.Nabta has also failed to procure scales to weigh luggage.Bus drivers simply guess the amount one has to pay for their load.Nobody really knows the criterion they use to figure the amount out.And in the majority of cases those who tell you how much to pay for your load are illiterate.Anybody can already see how weak Nabta has b ecome.Nabta must pick up its pace to ensure proper service or must just cease to exist.At roadblocks traffic officers simply talk to the driver and sometimes ask for passenger IDs while standing next to the bus.My experience on the many buses I have travelled on reveals that overloading is taking place.There is usually a co-driver who sits on some empty cold drink case in a row on the bus.Upon approaching a roadblock he hides and it certainly works because no traffic officer dares to climb on the bus to actually see how passengers are loaded.Passengers lack the temerity to alert the Police at the roadblocks to this fact because of fear of retribution.It is time Police officers at roadblocks begin to do their job right. Ntelamo Ntelamo Khomadal