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By Andrew Chibanda (Acting Spokesperson of PAZ)
The Passengers Association of Zimbabwe (PAZ) acknowledges all the attempts and measures the government is putting in place to protect its citizenry from the mishaps of the shrunk transport delivery system.
In its endeavor to do that the government is fairly failing because the implementation process lacks the following:
– comprehensibility: the techniques being used in the process are not informed. To this end, these must be understood by everyone to prevent misinterpretations.
– accurate, reliable, and valid information: if the information does not meet the requirements, corrective action could fail.
– flexibility: provision must be made in the control system for environmental changes to ensure sustainability.
– economical impact: are we moving in tandem with the economical trends? This entails that control of the transport system must be in synch with the economical turnaround programs like indigenization and devolution.
– planning and control must not be integrated;
– acceptability: the government must accept information from subordinates and stakeholders as this ensures success of any system.
– timeousness: there is a need to obtain information, synthesize it, process and evaluate it quickly so that corrective measures are put in place timeously.
– Maximum objectivity: must be a fundamental goal of any designer of a control system. This implies that a system must not be designed according to subjective standards, nor must it be discriminatory or biased as we see happening.
– Exceptions: this must be over-emphasized. The government cannot be the controller and player at the same time. There must be room for competition.
Therefore corrective action must not have deviations that raise eyebrows, as its purpose is to ensure set objectives are achieved.
What the government did does not indicate solutions to this transport situation as the pointers are; management by objective seems to have been overlooked here, and reaction to information is slow.
Reaction to obsolete information gives rise to additional problems. The information must be reacted to immediately. Realism is needed here before commencement for the purposes of self-evaluation before take off. As passengers, we wonder whether there are defined standards attached to this.
Where were there determined predictors of desired results other than punishing the passengers?
Where are set standards and identification of indicators or warning signs that desired results might not be achieved? Looking at the state of the rail tracks. They are a danger themselves.
Passengers have an unanswered question. Are the authorities in a position to come to us at some point for a week and feel the hardships we are facing as passengers? If not why should we trust the service they are rendering to us?
Both giants ZUPCO and NRZ do not have the capacity to alleviate the transport challenges. This was a desperate move. They should however operate separately to avoid blame on each when failure comes.
The idea of pinning the two together is consequently iterative and is not converging towards a long-lasting solution. As long as we continue to have marginalized areas, mushikashika is here to stay. It is in these geographical locations mushikashika is now making a catch on. For the government to succeed in providing cheap and a reliable transport system it needs to have an array of data.
The government should not prescribe operators. Passengers have the constitutional right to choose what they want to travel with or on. The open market system is needed here.
This is not politics. ZUPCO and NRZ at this stage are part of the problems we are facing today as passengers.
I had been watching events since the relaxation of lockdowns. ZUPCO is sinking little by little. In the past two months, most operators under franchise are pulling out their buses. This has left many passengers stranded either way. Those buses which are to remain on franchise are tattered while the ones operating independently are in a good state.