Bus and taxi drivers are embroiled in a bitter clash over customers in Tonota village.
According to Botswana Bus Association chairperson, Tiragalo Mponang, bus drivers feel that taxi drivers in Tonota give them a raw deal by picking up customers within the village and not dropping them off at the bus rank for bus drivers to transport them to Francistown.
Instead taxi drivers drop passengers along the Francistown road which is only a stone's throw away from the bus rank, after which they hitchhike or board buses from Gaborone, Palapye and other villages from the south. This results in the Tonota-Francistown bus drivers losing out on business.
Realising what was happening, bus drivers then decided that after leaving the bus rank, they would spend a significant amount of time by the bus stop along the Francistown road to get more customers before pushing out to Francistown.
The men in blue did not take lightly to the new changes, they were quick to remind the bus drivers that what they were doing was illegal and that if they continued, they would be slapped with tickets for violating the law.
Mponang said they tried explaining to the police the circumstances that led them there and even informed them that former traffic officers understood their position, but they did not bend, telling them that the law is the law and will not be changed to suit them.
Last week, aggrieved Tonota-Francistown bound bus drivers decided to dump the bus rank as their designated boarding venue. They now park buses by Tonota College of Education (TCE) in the heart of the village for passengers to board.
Before the bus rank was built, the designated starting point for buses was TCE but they were told to move to the bus rank. They were not happy and fought it, the matter even reached the courts and bus drivers won.
However, with time, taxi and bus drivers agreed on the best working relationship. It was decided that taxis would pick up customers within the village and hand them over to bus drivers at the bus rank.
“Bus drivers agreed and that is how they made the bus rank the designated bus boarding venue despite the court order,” Mponang explained, adding that because taxi drivers have since capitulated, bus drivers are now fighting the best way possible to get business.
Tonota Taxi Association Services Secretary Kealeboga Morebodi accused bus drivers of not being honest about what is happening. In his view, bus drivers are now losing business because they are failing their customers.
"They should be honest, the buses are unreliable, in the mornings for example, there is always severe shortage of transport to Francistown. This opens room for pirating. And when they do actually show up, they do not respect time, this makes customers angry and not want to board them.
“Their buses are old and some of them not well maintained, customers are shunning them and ask that we drop them at the bus stop, where they prefer to wait and board whatever they want," Morebodi said.
He explained that when a customer tells them where they want to go, they cannot forcibly take them to the bus rank.
"Tonota bus drivers should embrace competition, when they see buses from other places getting customers by the stop, they get angry, we have tried to make people use their buses by going to the bus rank but some easily cross the road and start hitch hiking, leaving the buses at the rank," he said.
Morebodi said in an interview that they convened a meeting to map the way forward on new developments and have agreed that the Department of Road Transport Services (DRTS) should talk to both bus and taxi drivers about laws that will govern them going forward.
Head of Traffic at Tonota Police Moses Gaboswele reiterated that the law needs to be followed. “I have no powers to change the law, if there is an issue, they need to approach the Ministry of Transport,” he said.
According to Botswana Bus Association chairperson, Tiragalo Mponang, bus drivers feel that taxi drivers in Tonota give them a raw deal by picking up customers within the village and not dropping them off at the bus rank for bus drivers to transport them to Francistown.
Instead taxi drivers drop passengers along the Francistown road which is only a stone's throw away from the bus rank, after which they hitchhike or board buses from Gaborone, Palapye and other villages from the south. This results in the Tonota-Francistown bus drivers losing out on business.
Realising what was happening, bus drivers then decided that after leaving the bus rank, they would spend a significant amount of time by the bus stop along the Francistown road to get more customers before pushing out to Francistown.
The men in blue did not take lightly to the new changes, they were quick to remind the bus drivers that what they were doing was illegal and that if they continued, they would be slapped with tickets for violating the law.
Mponang said they tried explaining to the police the circumstances that led them there and even informed them that former traffic officers understood their position, but they did not bend, telling them that the law is the law and will not be changed to suit them.
Last week, aggrieved Tonota-Francistown bound bus drivers decided to dump the bus rank as their designated boarding venue. They now park buses by Tonota College of Education (TCE) in the heart of the village for passengers to board.
Before the bus rank was built, the designated starting point for buses was TCE but they were told to move to the bus rank. They were not happy and fought it, the matter even reached the courts and bus drivers won.
However, with time, taxi and bus drivers agreed on the best working relationship. It was decided that taxis would pick up customers within the village and hand them over to bus drivers at the bus rank.
“Bus drivers agreed and that is how they made the bus rank the designated bus boarding venue despite the court order,” Mponang explained, adding that because taxi drivers have since capitulated, bus drivers are now fighting the best way possible to get business.
Tonota Taxi Association Services Secretary Kealeboga Morebodi accused bus drivers of not being honest about what is happening. In his view, bus drivers are now losing business because they are failing their customers.
"They should be honest, the buses are unreliable, in the mornings for example, there is always severe shortage of transport to Francistown. This opens room for pirating. And when they do actually show up, they do not respect time, this makes customers angry and not want to board them.
“Their buses are old and some of them not well maintained, customers are shunning them and ask that we drop them at the bus stop, where they prefer to wait and board whatever they want," Morebodi said.
He explained that when a customer tells them where they want to go, they cannot forcibly take them to the bus rank.
"Tonota bus drivers should embrace competition, when they see buses from other places getting customers by the stop, they get angry, we have tried to make people use their buses by going to the bus rank but some easily cross the road and start hitch hiking, leaving the buses at the rank," he said.
Morebodi said in an interview that they convened a meeting to map the way forward on new developments and have agreed that the Department of Road Transport Services (DRTS) should talk to both bus and taxi drivers about laws that will govern them going forward.
Head of Traffic at Tonota Police Moses Gaboswele reiterated that the law needs to be followed. “I have no powers to change the law, if there is an issue, they need to approach the Ministry of Transport,” he said.
