Thursday, March 28, 2024

Curb Public Bus Harassment of Passengers

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THE Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group (ZRHSG) has noted with dismay the continued harassment and inconveniencing of the travelling public by bus station pastors and other religious preachers and is calling on the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) and the Bus owners to put a stop to this.

Pastors and other religious preachers have for a long time been boarding long distance buses at the main station as the bus is departing and begin preaching to passengers without due regard to their freedom of choice and religion. This preaching ends up with passengers being coerced to make a donation to these pastors and religious preachers before they drop off. Nowadays these pastors waylay buses as they enter a city and begin the preaching to tired passengers as the bus heads towards the main bus station.

“The Consumer Protection and Competition Commission should also develop a commuter charter to help popularise the rights of the traveling public and the duties of the bus owners towards their clients,” says Group Administrator Mthoniswa Banda.

“I once got on a bus going to Solwezi awe it was a hell of a ride. We had a man of God take us from Lusaka to Chisamba, another one picked from Kabwe to Kapiri and then a medicine seller on the bus started promoting his medicine. Ndola to Kitwe another man of gold, Kitwe to Chingola another man of gold who noticed I was so fade up and decided to preach about me and how I was going to hell,” said a commuter and member of the ZRHSG.

Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group (ZRHSG) feels this behaviour needs to stop.

“No commuter rights in Zambia. Passengers are abused left right and centre. I tried in vain to engage the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for a help in developing a commuter rights charter but nothing came out from our discussion,” posted another member.

Another member said “This has really been a thorn in the neck. Commuters need to enjoy their journey and the drivers need to concentrate on the road. It’s public nuisance. The bus is public therefore they should not be at liberty without due permission. Law must be applied.”

The Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group (ZRHSG) hopes that RTSA, the ZCCPC and the Bus Owners can meet and resolve this problem that is disturbing the peace of the majority of bus commuters.

Zambia Roads & Highway Safety Group (ZRHSG) is an online group with over 1,200 members and is for sharing experiences and knowledge on road safety and defensive driving on Zambian roads and Highways by both professional drivers, car owners and the majority road users as passengers or pedestrians. These discussions will help identify road safety issues, bad policies and bad road designs requiring improvement by government and its agencies such as RTSA, RDA, NRFA, ZP and local councils.

Every week, the ZRHSG will produce a statement summarising the group discussion and sharing this opoinion with Road Safety agencies and other policy makers so they improve Zambia’s Road Safety.

16 COMMENTS

    • Life of a traveler at intercity bus terminus.

      First you are hit by the congestion and disorganized peoples around you, then caders will coerce you to get on a bus of their choice purported to be full of passengers, yet its just a bunch of street adults pretending to passengers, then biscuit and sweet selling Zimbabwean ladies will be all around you till you buy, when finally the bus starts off, papa starts preaching and you don’t show interest in his sermon, you become subject of his sermon,after he drops off, medicine man takes over,this goes on till you reach your destination.

  1. Godfridah Sumaili doesn’t see anything wrong with these Pentecostal conmen masquerading as Pastors. Some even threaten passengers with accidents if they don’t bless pastors with money to bless them with safe travels. Why are they in stations and not churches? Kampyongo must deregister all churches registered at PACRA because they’re businesses selling the gospel

  2. This PF GRZ is an extortion based government…….from PF caders extorting the public in markets and bus stops to pastors and lungu forcing public pray….to GRZ itself extorting the public with high taxes and prices………while lungu and his gang trurn their attention to looting and destroying reserve forests and game parks.

    This is what happens in a gangsta based government……..different groups are given free rein to terrorize the public for money…

  3. How about the harassment of the travelling public by party cadres? In what capacity do Local Councils participate in the discussions since their space has been taken over by the cadres? What has happened with the engagement of the GRZ to remove cadres from public facilities like bus stations and markets? We are suffering more at the hands of party cadres than these ‘preachers’. Local councils have lost their revenue base by these cadres who have taken over public places. Honourables Kampyongo and Dr Banda do something and bring sanity to the public utilities

  4. Those gold preachers are under the Christians for Lungu organization blessed by Sumaili to hammer more taxes on the travellers.

  5. I have traveled on buses for years and that annoying behavior of these *****s is sickening. All these so-called pastors should be banned.

  6. Kikikiki, they have instilled the fear of God into Zambians that Zambians dare not protest when these so-called men of God start preaching. Why not just protest to the driver and get everyone threaten to leave the bus and report the whole bunch to the police. What police?!? These guys are all in cohorts! S!it hole? Exactly!

  7. Let these bus preachers be stopped. They are just conmen after money. Better they preach in churches, cell group meetings ( chitente), evening services, afternoon services, and go round communitues preaching good news, like Jehovas witnesses do. Why only stick on buses? In fact the Jehovas witnesses cover long distances on foot, they do much work, but don’t ask people to give them money. Let us not allow these conmen to instil fear so they continue manipulating travellers.

  8. OR,Suggestion: Let passengers choose, to allow or disallow this preacher to start preaching before the bus starts off. If the majority say no, then its no.

  9. These con men and women are never allowed in Tanzanian registered buses (Taqwa and Falcon).
    One pastor was almost beaten at inter City when he tried his nonsense in a Taqwa bus going to Tanzania via NAKONDE

  10. What’s all this fuzzing about imwe ba ZR…chakuti, don’t you know we’re a Christian nation? Go ahead and seek guidance from the relevant ministry

  11. I do not see any thing wrong with those preachers, and you can not speak for ever one, if it is about giving no one should force you to give however it is important that you know about what will come next to you.
    Those preachers love your soul and you know not about it.

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