The bus business

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Transport provision in rural Zambia has been decimated by privatisation, while in the cities new job opportunities come with few rights attached. Humphrey Nkonde reports

During the 1990s Zambia was one of several developing countries that embraced World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) programmes in the hope of creating wealth for the population by allowing individuals to run some businesses in which the state had a stake.

In the case of the road passenger transport sector, the government’s transfer of its social obligation to the private sector has had two main outcomes: a drastic reduction in the level and quality of service in the rural areas, and a rapidly growing non-union passenger transport sector in the towns and cities.

Privatisation saw the scrapping of the United Bus Company of Zambia (UBZ), Mulungushi Travellers and other bus companies that were controlled by the state or managed by parastatal companies. This entailed a loss of over 1500 jobs at UBZ alone. Thousands of other jobs were lost during the privatisation of other bus and road transport companies, Zambia Railways and the demise, following privatisation, of Zambia Airways.

The process began as soon as Dr Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) ousted Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s United Party for National Independence (UNIP) following the 1991 presidential and parliamentary elections. Dr Chiluba’s administration swiftly removed import duty on smaller buses and soon the urban roads were filled with these vehicles.

Rural transport hit hard

Travellers in the rural areas are now forced to risk boarding trucks and other vehicles that are not buses, most of which are not roadworthy or suitable for passengers. The lack of reliable transport in the rural areas was tragically demonstrated in April this year when 44 children from Kawambwa High School in Luapula province died in a road traffic accident as they were travelling home for the holidays in a Mitsubishi truck crammed with over 110 pupils.

During Dr Kaunda’s government the truck driver would not have been allowed to carry the pupils, as public transport duties were a preserve of UBZ in both the rural and urban areas.

John Daka, the executive director of the children’s support organisation Vulnerable Children Advocacy Project, is not alone in believing the government should have left UBZ to cater for the rural population, outside of the privatisation process. “The government should not have relied on the private sector to service rural areas,” he commented, “because the operations of this new business segment are determined by profitable routes.”

It would be true to say that the scrapped UBZ was running at a loss before its demise. There were drivers, conductors and inspectors among other workers who literally had no job to do, since many of them were employed for the sake of political appeasement. During Dr Kaunda’s government there was a narrow gap between industrial and political considerations in the parastatal companies.

However no-one stopped to consider what would happen to the rural areas once UBZ was scrapped. The few rural businesses in operation had no capacity to buy fleets of buses to service rural areas, most which have dusty or tarred roads with a lot of potholes. In some rural places, ox-drawn carts are now used to provide basic transport.

“The government has a social obligation to provide transport to the rural population, and it can do that through a state-controlled bus company,” Daka suggested recently. “Look at the good service and profits the Post Bus under the Zambia Postal service is making by operating between Ndola (the capital for the Copperbelt) and Samfya (a rural farming and fishing town in Luapula province).”

More work, fewer rights

For the urban areas, the number of road passenger transport employees has increased since the privatisation process, but these workers are not represented by a union and enjoy few employment rights.

The Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) is negotiating with government to allow organisation of what its secretary general Sylvester Tembo has identified as the fastest growing workforce since privatisation began. For their part, the workers have presented a proposal to the ministry of labour and social security. But the government appears thus far to be dragging its feet.

In the absence of a trade union these employees continue to work under very poor conditions. “Road passenger transport workers do long hours, starting their operations early and knocking off very late,” says Tembo. “Yet employers in this sector can fire them at any time.”

Research carried out in Luanshya and Chingola, two other towns on the Copperbelt, has revealed that there is no fair structure governing the pay of bus drivers and conductors, who are also not contributing to any pension scheme.

“My employer has set a target of how much cash I should take everyday. If I don’t attain the target, I forfeit my pay,” a Chingola-based driver said. “This is the reason we wake up early in the morning and stop work very late. If road passenger transport workers were represented by a union, we would not have to work under such conditions of service.”

During the time of UBZ, conductors were full time employees, but today they are not even known by bus operators. The survey revealed that drivers employ conductors whom they pay unspecified amounts of commission after a day’s work.

“Being a bus conductor is a risk job. One of our fellow bus conductors was involved in an accident and he has not been paid anything because he was not known by the owner of the bus,” a young bus conductor said.

This burgeoning young passenger transport workforce is pinning its hopes for the establishment of decent labour standards on the creation of a union to represent its interests. It is not just pay and working conditions that need protection, but also basic health and employment rights.

The Zambian cabinet has recently decided to supply anti-retro viral drugs to HIV/AIDS patients in a country still battling against prevalence rates of around 20 per cent. However drivers have to fund themselves for voluntary counselling and testing services, because they are not entitled to medical schemes.

“We ask our friends for small amounts of money if we get sick,” one driver said. Others said drivers feared going to hospital because some employers replaced them when they got sick.

Humphrey Nkonde is a freelance journalist and a member of the Press Association of Zambia.

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