Harare City in Revenue Collection Battle with Hwindis
AFTER years of an illegal takeover by touts and rank marshals, Harare City Council (HCC) has finally regained control of the Simon Muzenda Bus Terminus (formerly Fourth Street Bus Terminus).
These rogue groups reportedly collected thousands of dollars daily in fees from transporters.
The city council is now collecting over US$800 daily from the terminus in rank use fees.
It is now considering an operation to wrest four other bus termini in the city centre — Market Square, Rezende, Charge Office and Speke Avenue (also known as Copacabana).
All the four places are under the control of touts, who are extorting money from bus operators.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, HCC town clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said:
“Every bus terminus from now on will be controlled by the City of Harare. We will be responsible for collecting fees from all ranks, instead of the touts.
“We are now in charge of the Fourth Street rank and per day, we are collecting around US$800. Presently, the council was only operating the terminus between 8am and 4pm, but plans were underway to extend the operating hours. We were getting that little revenue because of our operating times,” said Eng Chisango.
Harare City in Revenue Collection Battle with Hwindis
“Now, we are looking to extend our working hours beyond 4pm as we have noted that the rank is busier after that time. We are targeting to work up to 8pm.
“As we are now in charge of the Fourth Street rank, we are looking forward to doing the same at Rezende, Copacabana and Charge Office, then we will finish off at Market Square. This is just us taking control of everything.
“Basically, we are restoring order. We want to use our assets to generate revenue so that we can spruce them up.”
The council, Eng Chisango said, planned to refurbish all bus termini.
Harare has at least five associations representing bus and commuter omnibus operators, boasting approximately 800 members.
Under the unauthorised taxation, rank marshals are reportedly collecting up to US$240 000 per month from each association, bringing the cumulative figure to about US$1 million monthly.
Eng Chisango added:
“For the safety of our employees, we will build guardrooms and will have cash-in-transit vehicles collecting money from the ranks at regular intervals throughout the day.
“Council is accepting all forms of payment, including point-of-sale electronic transactions. We are also working on introducing an electronic system that shows the head office all money that would have been paid by transporters in real-time.”
He encouraged transport operators to make use of the council’s holding bays.
