The Road Transport and Safety Agency has suspended the Road Service Licence for Juldan Motors Bus Services for violating the conditions upon which the operator’s licence was granted.
RTSA Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Zindaba Soko stated that the recent road traffic accidents involving Juldan Motors Bus Services have been frequent and thereby posing a serious danger to the public.
Mr Soko said this in a statement issued to ZANIS in Lusaka today by RATSA Head of Communications Fredrick Mubanga.
He stated that the Agency has noted with concern that the operator has either failed or neglected to address the problem of excessive speed in its operations and the nation has continued to lose people as a result of the road accidents that could otherwise been preventable.
On 3rd November 2017, a Lusaka bound Juldan Motors bus, Scania Marco polo registration number ALF 6760 was involved in a road accident in Serenje near Kanona area, were one person died and 31 were left injured.
On March 18th 2018, another Juldan Motors bus was involved in a road traffic accident along the Ndola-Kapiri Mposhi road.
On 29th March 2018, another Juldan Motors bus registration number ALR 811 heading to South Africa was involved in an accident in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, were one person died and 33 were injured.
And within a space of four days another Juldan Motors bus was involved in a road accident on the 02nd April, 2018 along the Kasama-Luwingu road and four people died and several passengers were left injured.
Mr Soko said Investigations carried out in all these road accidents have established that excessive speed was prominent as the cause of the accidents.
In light of the highlighted incidents, it is very clear that the company’s road safety profile has increasingly deteriorated and the RTSA is evoking section 108 (16) of the Road Traffic Act No. 11 of 2002 which states as follows:
“A road service licence may be revoked or suspended in whole or in part or its terms or 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.”
“Provided that the Director shall not revoke, suspend or in terms of this subsection, vary such a licence unless owing to the frequency of breach of conditions on the part of the licence holder or to the breach having been committed willfully, or to the danger to the public involved in the breach, the Director is satisfied that the licence should be revoked.”
RTSA has forthwith, given Juldan Motors bus services 48 hours to cease operations and thereafter none of the operator’s buses shall be expected to be on the road.
He added that RSL will only be restored subject to the operator meeting the conditions that the Agency has set to address the findings from the accident investigations which include the following
This RTSA is not for purpose. How can an institution which can’t issue drivers licence cards for close to a year be tasked with the responsibility of saving lives? If this institution has a board, how on earth is the CEO still in charge?
Tuendafye nefipaepala instead of driver\s licenses. This is pathetic to say the least. Also car registartion is an issue in Zed. You must spare enough time to queue up and spend close to 2-3 hours. RATSA should wake up to the cries of the many Zambians.
This is evidence of extreme incompetency in Lungu’s administration. They’ve failed to set up even a simple system to fix this problem once and for all. Zambians continue to die needlessly because of this administration’s incompetency. Under the current Zambian laws, can’t the accident victim’s family sue the Transportation Company for gross negligence? The Zambian lawyers need to look into this. Some of these companies will change their behavior if people begin to sue them and hold them accountable for negligence. Once they begin to lose some money, they’ll wake up real fast.
This institution called RTSA are jokers and equal partners in killing innocent Zambians. Every time you dial their toll free line to inform them about bussess overspending, no one answers. The line goes unattended to. Today they want to be seen working while lives coould have been saved. Shame on you SOKO and you mediocre leadership. I wish I had powers I could have fired you and send you to prison. That toll free line could have helped to save lives. Your free toll line is just on paper it’s non functional.
Zambia’s long distance roads are in a bad state and too narrow. We need dual carriage ways for all our major long distance roads. Nakonde town for instance hosts a major government revenue collecting source. But look at the great north road as you approach Nakonde – THE HELL RUN REINSTATED. Plunging back the resources collected from these road tolls into proper road reconstruction and widening will go a long way in preventing these accidents.
I agree with you. But I also think drivers have brains to reason that we do not ha good roads, therefore must drive carefully.
E buntu.
It would be good to take a holistic view of these accidents; it may not necessarily be the bus company’s fault. In Zambia it appears fees and taxes are collected for heaven knows what reason! Those exorbitant border charges are collected for visiting with a foreign car and shortly after entering the country the bad roads break something on the cars. Nobody cares. Citizens are now paying through their noses at toll gates (especially those commuting between gates) but they drive on useless roads. Nobody cares. Until SOMEONE cares, theft of public resources under the guise of fees and taxes will continue unabated.
Before suspending a license for some of these Bus companies RTSA should thoroughly investigate the root cause of some of these accidents. It might not be the driver’s or Bus’s fault but due to external forces
Job well done RATSA, we should not lose lives in the name of business and improving the economy.
Road accidents simply do not happen by chance, they are the direct consequence of unsafe driving, by one or other party involved with almost 90 percent of road accidents being attributed to driver error. Unfortunately most motorists believe that they are the best drivers on the road and that accidents only happen to others people.
License will be restored after meeting conditions…..what a joke…only in Zambia can you get away with reckless driving. The solution is simple fit all PSV with speed limiters and dashcams….hold management responsible and Zambian insurance should only provide insurance to PSV fitted with the above equipment.
Soko is a joke…get someone abroad with experience and fresh ideas.
That’s the problem when youngsters take charge of business. When Mr Mazhandu retired and left his son Japhet in charge, mamama! Japhet thought to run a business all you need is to support the party in govt, move around with a packet of condoms and drink jemasoni while issuing instructions. He almost collapsed his father’s business that he’s built over the years. July Danobo has been fourcefully displaced by his son and now we’re witnessing the outcome. Youngsters need to change the way they look at things otherwise it’ll be a mistake to leave them in charge
To begin with it’s a good thing for ratsa to take that action for purposes of regulation and ensuring due compliance to road safety regulations job well done. But further I would like to urge RDA to work on certain roads like for example the Ndola kapiri road which has depressions on the road that pose a threat esp for smaller sedan cars as this will reduce accidents furthermore some roads are too narrow n have no room for error n it’s good the presidential initiative to construct a dual carriage way will sort this out n hopefully for other roads across the country in the near future. For juldan motors you have been my preferred choice of transport n hope to see your buses back on the road you are an outstanding bus service company n you will get back to getting us there safely as your…
One more issue, most drivers drink. Levels of booze are high. Measures should be put in place to correct this. Companies should pay for injuries suffered
to passengers. It will be awake up call. Condolences to all those who have lost loved ones in these accidents.