By ANDREW MUKOMA
SOME taxi drivers in Livingstone have protested the removal of road blocks and snap checks by the new dawn government and asked that the decision be reversed.
The drivers have charged that since the abolishment of road blocks and snap checks by Home Affairs Minister Jack Mwimbu, some unlicensed drivers have gone on the road and are stealing their business.
Victor Mwela of Dambwa North, who operates a number of taxis says that the amount of money drivers were cashing in on daily basis has gone down.
Mr Mwela explained that in a day drivers were making it but now, it has become a problem.
In an interview with the Daily Nation in Livingstone, Mr Mwela said that pirate drivers are on the road and they using standard fair charts of regulated Public Service Vehicles.
Mr Mwela who owns Mwevic Tours Company complained that his drivers were failing to make their daily targets.
“We pay tax to do what we do but the decision by government has killed our business. We are sharing customers with pirate drivers who, some of them are not qualified,” he said.
“Right now the unregulated drivers are doing everything they want on the road because there is no road block or snap check, some of them do not have commercial licences,” he lamented. “Compliance to have vehicles roadworthy is the only way to avoid being inconvenienced by road blocks and snap check,” he said.
Mr Mwela has requested that the decision should be rescinded as soon as possible to avoid lawlessness on the road.
He said failure by the government to rescind the division, the regulated driver will stop complying with
the law which will reduce the government’s revenue collection.
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