By OLIVER SAMBOKO
IN the last 10 years, Government lost million in revenue collection because of allowing cadres from the ruling party to take over the running of bus stops in Lusaka and the removal of cadres is like oxygen to the transport sector, Capital Bus Proprietor Ishmael Kankara has said.
He said the transport sector, has in the last ten years been choked but was hopeful that the new government is going to bring order in the manner business is conducted. He said the local authority was losing a lot of money because the cadres had taken over the collection of fees in the stations.
Mr Kankara said bus operators were forced to pay K30 to K40 per trip to the party cadres, the money which was never remitted to the Government coffers. “The laws were being abused because in the last ten years the police had no power to control the cadres in markets and bus station,” he said.
Mr Kankara said the cadres who were harassing people in bus stations were being used by some powerful politically connected individuals to extort money from bus operators. “The chaos made it difficult to operate the commutator business,’’ he said. He said caderism in bus stations was well organized and whoever tried to resist them was met with full force. Mr Kankara recalled that in the past, two of his drivers were killed in cold blood for resisting to pay illegal fees to cadres who were extorting money. He said following the removal of cadres from the bus stations, order has finally returned in most bus stations.
Mr Kankara complained that because of resisting to pay fees to party cadres, his life was always threatened and had to write to the inspector general of police for protection. He said the speech by the President elect has given hope to the transport sector that hopefully the thuggery will stop in bus stations.
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