On Minubis Seating Capacity

When early last year government made a directive that all minibuses operating on the roads of Malawi should start carrying a maximum of three passengers per seat, smiles flitted across the faces of many Malawians who commute to and from different places using public transport.

On the other hand, it was a directive that aroused so much apprehension within the transport industry up to reaching a point where minibus operators decided to pack their vehicles in their garages and refused to take them to the roads for a week or so.

Government was mostly concerned about the peril that the lives of Malawians using public transport, minibuses in this case, were exposed to. With four passengers occupying one seat, road accidents were a dime a dozen and they were difficult to control, usually because the vehicles were overloaded. In simple terms, it is very difficult for a driver to swerve back into the road an overloaded vehicle that has deviated from the road than a ‘lightly-packed’ one.

In another instance, if passengers are packed like sardines, almost with no breathing space, chances of survival in an accident are very minimal. This is because they are already under panic and any mishap is likely to cause more havoc as they will be scrambling for space through which they can escape.

Government put all these dangers under a microscope and finally ordered that passengers’ lives should no longer be put in danger without cause. And the decree has had practical positive results since it was implemented.

But now the journey to the much-abhorred past is almost complete: minibus operators have reverted to the old system of carrying four passengers per seat, and like before February last year, the victim remains the poor Malawian who cannot afford to acquire a personal vehicle, and subsequently turns to public transport.

And the paradox of the whole thing is that this usually happens in the presence of traffic police officers. No wonder they have recently been declared the most corrupt entity of government.

All the conductor or the drive of the minibus that is carrying four passengers per seat has to do at a traffic police check-point is palm-grease the officer/s and the trip continues without much as hard work. This is done at the expense of the lives of passengers who are usually gagged by the conduct of the law enforcers since the conductor or the driver will not hear the passengers’ pleas because he has already dealt with the “biggest impediment”.

Sad to not also is the fact that while carrying four passengers per seat, instead of three, some minibus drivers over-speed as though they are carrying bales of clothes.

The avaricious desire to make more money in the “four-seat” lucrative minibus-transport business becomes the prevailing passion such that they instantly begin to yearn for another trip the moment the minibus starts off.

Although the fear for one’s life is the dominant image when it comes to minibus seating capacity, comfort too needs to be at the centre of consideration. It is very disheartening for a passenger to travel a journey of more than 100 kilometers on a worn-out minibus that is not even fit to be on the road.

Yet this is the very same minibus whose driver and conductor demand that three passengers per seat are not enough, but four. The passenger has no flicker of comfort and the whole journey becomes a burden on them.

Well, one might argue that on the part of worn-out, unfit minibuses, every passenger has the right which minibus to board. But the problem comes when one is in a hurry and wants to meet a deadline and they find that the next minibus to leave the terminal is the worn-out one. Do they have any choice in this case other than to jump onto the unfit vehicle? This is because minibus operators have their own special arrangement on which minibus is supposed to leave next.

But perhaps the blame has to be shifted onto the Road Traffic Directorate for issuing Certificates of Fitness (Cof) to vehicles that are not worth to operate on the roads of Malawi.

All in all, it is a clear fact that the prohibited seating plan in back in town. Minibus operators have reverted to the old system of carrying four passengers per seat despite government having abolished it last year, and traffic police officers are within the whole system and lack professionalism.

Of course, it should not be generalized here because there are others who are very competent and have no craving for bribes of whatever sort. Such officers need a pat on their backs.

But still more, reverting to the abolished system of carrying four passengers per seat in minibuses should not have been the case now. We were supposed to be moving forward in all aspects, not backtracking.

There are many issues that government needs to tackle now and the issue of minibuses carrying four passengers per seat should have been a dead letter now, but since it has resurfaced, government should have no option than to revisit it before it expands out of reach. Government needs to act quickly; the journey to the past is here again!