THE Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) has with immediate effect suspended the Road Service Licence for City Express Bus Services limited which operates between Lusaka and Solwezi.
RTSA has since warned that it would not tolerate dangerous driving and some motorists driving under the influence of alcohol and disregarding road traffic regulations.
Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday, RTSA executive director Zindaba Soko announced the suspension of licence No.0073854 which runs fleet No.LSK 484
Mr Soko said the suspension of the licence was a result of numerous complaints on bad state of the bus by members of the public.
“RTSA received a complaint from a passenger on 15th January 2013 concerning the bad state of the bus belonging to City Express Services limited which operates from Lusaka and Solwezi.
“RTSA undertook to inspect the busses for City Express Services limited and found that of the four that were inspected, their conditions were not suitable for ferrying passengers,” Mr Soko said.
He said no such buses should be used for public transportation until further notice.
He said the agency suspended the licence because City Express Bus Services limited failed to avail the motor vehicles for re-examination hence violated conditions under which their licence was issued.
He said the agency wrote to City Express Services limited to avail the entire fleet for re-examinations at RTSA headquarters within a stipulated period and that the proprietors only availed two of their busses contrary to requirements contained in the letter sent to them.
The Road Traffic Act No.11 of 2002, provides the director to consider section 108 (16) which states that ‘A road service licence may be revoked or suspected in whole or in part or its terms of conditions may be varied by the director on the ground that any condition subject to which the licence or a variation was granted has not been complied with.’
Mr Soko said among the conditions under which a road service licence was granted, was a roadworthy vehicle with valid certificate of fitness.
He, however, said City Express Services limited failed to avail the motor vehicle for re-examination and violated conditions under which their licence was issued.
“All vehicles traversing on our public roads must be certified roadworthy and especially the public service vehicles otherwise the safety of other road users cannot be assured,” he said.
He warned that RTSA would not allow such lawlessness and appealed to all bus owners and passengers to ensure public service vehicles were roadworthy at all times.
He said the agency would publish in the Government gazette and media names of drivers and motorists who were recently arrested for traffic offences on dangerous driving and under influence of alcohol.
Among other drivers found to have committed offences in connection to drunken and dangerous driving and recommended that their licences be revoked or suspended include, Martin Musonda who caused an accident in Mpulungu while driving dangerously in which six lives were lost on January 11, 2012.
Charles Lungu caused an accident by hitting into a tree on January 18, 2013, along Perranyatwa road while drunk while Victor Banda, unregistered driver with a provisional drivers’ licence while driving a Toyota Corolla disregarded the stop sign on the junction of Great East road near Roman Catholic and hit into an Ipsum registration number ABP 6060.
Mr Soko said RTSA had also forwarded cases to the courts where unscrupulous individuals had been found with false documents purported to be licences and motor vehicle registration certificates.
Speaking at the same occasion, RTSA principal licencing officer Pumi Mfwankila said the agency had submitted to the Ministry of Transport, Works, Supply and Communications a proposal on a road accident fund for consideration to assist accident victims.
I am wondering, “RTSA undertook to inspect the busses for City Express Services limited and found that of the four that were inspected, their conditions were not suitable for ferrying passengers,” the question is, did this bus have a certificate of fitness or not? If they have recent fitness certificate, then the officer who issued it is either corrupt or incompetent! Vehicles are not certified fit or unfit upon complaints from the public, but periodically at appointed times.This is what ACC should be following
Many vehicles on Zambian roads are fit for scrap yard to be crashed and salvaged material recycled for making new cars. Its pathetic and terrible to see some of the veheicles on our roads today, in these morden times! Where is the toothless RTSA? Protect the lives of our people, that why you have those jobs, be both proactive and reactive.
exactly. no wonder all vechicles sold on second hand from this end are not road worthy according to the Japanese standards even when their roads are excellent. what more our pothole lased roads or indeed semi Olympic swimming pools on roads?
we really need to call a spade a spade and say enough with mediocrity
Acting on impulse
RTSA dont work on impulse, now you know that you have’nt been doing your work. accept the lapses you have had and change, we dont expect you to pretend to work after we have lost lives. we want total sanity on the roads not only on public transport also for private transport.
ban them for 5 years..nonsense..!
Ratsa shoud also check on the MBWEE bus services – Mbwee buses services operate between Intercity (lusaka) and the copperbelt. Their buses are wrecks and a danger to the travelling public. To make matters worse, the buses like to travel at night to avoid police and ratsa.
Let RTSA also check TICKLAYS the one that operates Lusaka to Mwinilunga route. Their buses are a time bomb!
They do not have respect for their clients. You wouldnt want to get on the bus. They are always overloaded. Something should urgently be done about TICKLAYS before we lose more lives. Lets be Proactive. Lets not only act when a tragedy happens.
Lsk 484 is tickleys to my knowledge.
(All vehicles traversing on our public roads must be certified roadworthy and especially the public service vehicles otherwise the safety of other road users cannot be assured, ) Ban Flash buses too.
LSK 484 sounds like Ticklay’s old line, think there is need for a form of commission run by drivers and owners of these buses, even the consumers ought to be part of it. There is need fr standards in these groups to be set by those who use it. and the operators simply comply.
Take Flash buses out of our roads please!
To read Pumi Mfwankila pricipal licensing office comments of submitting a road accident funeral fund proposal to the ministry of transport just tells Zambians how defective and counter productive ideas RATSA is. How on earth does RATSA look forward to accidents instead of intensifying avoidance measures. We warned you PF Sata have never got new ideas or innovative competency over accidents in the nation.
I read the Pumi Mfwankila’s comments too. to the contrary i think the proposal is timely. While we need to prevent road traffic accidents, it is important to establish schemes that can help the victims of road traffic accidents. a very well meaning and upright citizen will support a social security scheme that can help people in need. Road Accident Funds exists in South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Botswana, Newzealand, Australia etc. In UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and almost all European Countries they have a similar scheme call Motor Insurance Buareax.
Well meaning citizens must not only condemn other people thinking but give options. The RTSA proposal on the accident fund is a good proposal.
Mbambande, nobody “looks forward” to accidents. They just happen. However, as part of risk management and reality, it is a good idea to prepare for that than to assume it is bad manners to look on the dark side. Am I sensing superstition and a lack of mitigation awareness here? We do need very good disaster management mechanisms to cater for both the natural and human-induced incidents like what happened. In a lot of societies this is an institution on its own…
Sata is also not fit for plot one.
bu colour bobe mwansakabingA iwe. namazai iwe waba ukununka amafi
we are not talking about Sata here…Thats why some of you chaps on this blog are so dull.
Idiot number 11
Let rtsa officers come to the lumumba filter lane after ponchick restraunt and see the deplorable buses hiace which are loading as a bus station .these buses are real death traps for clients.plse investigate the drivers and buses.
All the owner will do is paint those buses and put them under a friends licence. It happened before and all are aware of the transporter from kitwe who had so many accidents.
RATSA JUST TRY TO DO YOUR JOB ONE DAY BY FOLLOWING ALL THE BUSES IN THE STATIONS AND INSPECT THEM, YOU WILL KNOW HOW MANY VIHECLES ARE FIT TO CARRY PASSANGERS. PLEASE DO SOMETHING IT’S NOT ONLY THOSE BUSES.
I am waiting to see how far this “exercise” will go. Anything induced by a knee-jerk reaction has a very speedy cooling off period.
There are a lot of buses in the station that are not Road worth and the employess (Driver/Conductors) have NO respect to the passengers at all.A good example to this is “LIKILI” Hhhhhhshhhhh…………All the buses for this company are bendy on the road.I dont know if i only see one each and everytime but i think all of them are recks!!
RTSA should not act on impulse.Suddenly there’re so many road blocks even within town.Road blocks do not help but contribute to accidents. They should improve on monitoring the drivers who drive recklessly and overtake convoys of vehicles on single lanehighways. Kitwe Chingola road is one of the roads where people overtake convoys of vehicles and end up bashing into innocent on coming cars.I don’t understand why most Zambians have become so impatient.
Maybe we should not be surprised as to why accidents will keep on increasing. I say so because RTSA and any other relevant authorities do not seem to know what they are supposed to be doing, to do first things first. Upon receiving this complaint, what RTSA should have done, was to do own investigation immediately. Maybe its because they are too lazy to do their jobs as is typical of many zambians. The questions we should be asking how did the vehicle pass its fitness test? Or is it the case of people doing these fitness tests not qualified or corrupt? These are questions I expect RTSA to be asking and bring to book however is find wanting. Not much will be achieved by doing the same thing over and over again.
Let them check all buses e,g Ticklays’s buses are in pathetic condition especially those that go to Swolwezi.
Chembe must also be inspected without fail. The bus makes Kitwe seem as if it’s a thousand miles away whilst subjecting passengers to the sound of loose metal objects underneath. RTSA please check CHEMBE
Am very surprised and amused by the way RATSA issues out licenses to TICKLAYS COACH SERVICES even when they know that those busses are not fit to be on the road,surely do they want the country to experience yet another fatal road accident for them to act professionally? Why dont Zindaba soko want to listen to the outcry of commuters? whose interest does he serve as RATSA BOSS? I.e,,frequent breakdowns,shattered windscreens,worn out tyres,bed bugs on the chairs,cocroaches and rude workers….etc….One can even wonder if such transporters who can fail to avail their busses for inspection to RATSA can remit ZRA Tax?
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