Case of abuse of commuter rights
To: The Deputy Director- Road Transport
Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA)
P.0 Box 32167
Dedan Kimathi Road
Lusaka
From: Pelekelo Liswaniso
C/o Zambia Daily Mail
P. O. Box 31421
Lusaka
16th March, 2009
Dear Mr. M’tonga,
Re: Complaint against Kuhoma Transport at Inter-City Bus Terminus
I wish to bring to your attention to the ridicule and inconvenience the travelling public are subjected to at Lusaka’s Inter-City Bus Terminus, perpetrated by operators such as Kuhoma Transport.
Some of these cases border on shameless day-light robbery, fraud, cheating and harassment, contrary to the laws of Zambia.
A case in point is yesterday on Sunday, March 15, 2009, when my son and his friend, who were returning to school in Ndola, bought bus tickets at 07:20 hours, in the presence of my wife, after being assured by the conductor of ABL 2284, which was travelling to the Copperbelt that it was a time bus, scheduled to leave at 08:00 hours when in fact not. The bus belongs to Kuhoma Transport of Kitwe.
My son and his friend innocently jumped on the bus after paying K120, 000 (K60, 000 each), hoping to leave at 08:00 hours and arrive in Ndola safely and in time to also safely catch a taxi to the boarding school.
However, the bus did not leave at 08:00 hours as promised. The two pupils were even more shocked three and half hours later when they were told that the bus would not leave until it was full.
Realising the predicament in which they were and the fear of arriving in Ndola in the night, as it had happened before when my son had spent seven hours languishing in a bus at the station in a similar circumstance earlier at the beginning of the school term, he called me from his mobile at 10:30 hours complaining about the delay.
I rushed to the Inter-City Terminus immediately, only to find the said bus with only a handful of passengers inside. The purported passengers who were earlier seen on the bus had vanished in thin air.
When I inquired from the man, the conductor I suppose, who had sold my son the tickets, and still had a receipt book in his hands on why the bus had not left for the Copperbelt as scheduled at 08:00, he rudely retorted that it was not a time bus and that it would only leave the station when it was full.
Please find attached the photo of the said conductor in checked shirt besides the Kuhoma Bus.
I informed the said conductor and the colleagues he was with that I was worried about the safety of my son and his friend as they were pupils and I did not want them to arrive in Ndola in the night and subsequently asked for a refund so that they could get on to another bus.
To my surprise, the conductor simply walked away and said in Bemba mixed with English that: “ Mule umfwa, te time bus iyii, and there is no refund.”
Realising that I was heading nowhere with the bus crew, I was prompted to ask for the telephone number of Kuhoma Transport and one of them said I could contact the owner on Cell: 097-7-822868.
I immediately rang the number and to my further disappointment, the man who answered my call and claiming that he was the owner of the bus flatly refused to listen to my explanation and that no refunds will be made because it was not a time bus.
I was shocked to say the least because his reaction was out of this world. He was rude and his answers had no resemblance of any public relations at all. He humiliated me even further for trying to get some redress from him saying before he cut off the line that I could go anywhere and complain if I wished.
Ha… I was dumb founded…! A bus owner speaking to a customer like that. I shuddered and wondered what had befallen me. Again, I had hit a brick wall. I gave up and left them.
I then inquired from other buses and fortunately found a Euro Bus almost full with passengers travelling to the Copperbelt. I pleaded with the bus crew, and luckily, they sold me two tickets and the boys, retrieved their luggage from the Kuhoma Bus and boarded the Euro bus which left ten minutes later. I parted away with K120, 000 (for the two boys). What an agonizing day!
I decided to go home and almost treated the episode a closed matter but on second thoughts, I decided to report the matter to the Police within the Inter-City Bus Terminus. The matter was officially recorded at 11:30 hours the same day on Sunday, March 15, 2009 and to my disappointment again, the Police said there was nothing they could do.
I left the Police Post feeling more demoralised and wondered whether they were any laws being respected vis-à-vis the rights of the traveling public.
It is with this background that I have found no other way of addressing the matter than lodging this complaint to your good office, hoping that sanity prevails at Inter-City Bus Terminus.
Kindly facilitate my refund from Kuhoma Transport for the fare by my son and his friend as they did not travel by that bus.
I also hope that measures are introduced to protect the travelling public from such ill-treatment and RTSA should strongly consider opening a help desk at Inter-city bus station to curb such unscrupulous bus crews.
I thank you in anticipation.
Pelekelo Liswaniso
Online/Production Editor
Cell: 097-7-280464
c.c Commuter Rights Association of Zambia
c.c. Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA)
Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA)
P.0 Box 32167
Dedan Kimathi Road
Lusaka
From: Pelekelo Liswaniso
C/o Zambia Daily Mail
P. O. Box 31421
Lusaka
16th March, 2009
Dear Mr. M’tonga,
Re: Complaint against Kuhoma Transport at Inter-City Bus Terminus
I wish to bring to your attention to the ridicule and inconvenience the travelling public are subjected to at Lusaka’s Inter-City Bus Terminus, perpetrated by operators such as Kuhoma Transport.
Some of these cases border on shameless day-light robbery, fraud, cheating and harassment, contrary to the laws of Zambia.
A case in point is yesterday on Sunday, March 15, 2009, when my son and his friend, who were returning to school in Ndola, bought bus tickets at 07:20 hours, in the presence of my wife, after being assured by the conductor of ABL 2284, which was travelling to the Copperbelt that it was a time bus, scheduled to leave at 08:00 hours when in fact not. The bus belongs to Kuhoma Transport of Kitwe.
My son and his friend innocently jumped on the bus after paying K120, 000 (K60, 000 each), hoping to leave at 08:00 hours and arrive in Ndola safely and in time to also safely catch a taxi to the boarding school.
However, the bus did not leave at 08:00 hours as promised. The two pupils were even more shocked three and half hours later when they were told that the bus would not leave until it was full.
Realising the predicament in which they were and the fear of arriving in Ndola in the night, as it had happened before when my son had spent seven hours languishing in a bus at the station in a similar circumstance earlier at the beginning of the school term, he called me from his mobile at 10:30 hours complaining about the delay.
I rushed to the Inter-City Terminus immediately, only to find the said bus with only a handful of passengers inside. The purported passengers who were earlier seen on the bus had vanished in thin air.
When I inquired from the man, the conductor I suppose, who had sold my son the tickets, and still had a receipt book in his hands on why the bus had not left for the Copperbelt as scheduled at 08:00, he rudely retorted that it was not a time bus and that it would only leave the station when it was full.
Please find attached the photo of the said conductor in checked shirt besides the Kuhoma Bus.
I informed the said conductor and the colleagues he was with that I was worried about the safety of my son and his friend as they were pupils and I did not want them to arrive in Ndola in the night and subsequently asked for a refund so that they could get on to another bus.
To my surprise, the conductor simply walked away and said in Bemba mixed with English that: “ Mule umfwa, te time bus iyii, and there is no refund.”
Realising that I was heading nowhere with the bus crew, I was prompted to ask for the telephone number of Kuhoma Transport and one of them said I could contact the owner on Cell: 097-7-822868.
I immediately rang the number and to my further disappointment, the man who answered my call and claiming that he was the owner of the bus flatly refused to listen to my explanation and that no refunds will be made because it was not a time bus.
I was shocked to say the least because his reaction was out of this world. He was rude and his answers had no resemblance of any public relations at all. He humiliated me even further for trying to get some redress from him saying before he cut off the line that I could go anywhere and complain if I wished.
Ha… I was dumb founded…! A bus owner speaking to a customer like that. I shuddered and wondered what had befallen me. Again, I had hit a brick wall. I gave up and left them.
I then inquired from other buses and fortunately found a Euro Bus almost full with passengers travelling to the Copperbelt. I pleaded with the bus crew, and luckily, they sold me two tickets and the boys, retrieved their luggage from the Kuhoma Bus and boarded the Euro bus which left ten minutes later. I parted away with K120, 000 (for the two boys). What an agonizing day!
I decided to go home and almost treated the episode a closed matter but on second thoughts, I decided to report the matter to the Police within the Inter-City Bus Terminus. The matter was officially recorded at 11:30 hours the same day on Sunday, March 15, 2009 and to my disappointment again, the Police said there was nothing they could do.
I left the Police Post feeling more demoralised and wondered whether they were any laws being respected vis-à-vis the rights of the traveling public.
It is with this background that I have found no other way of addressing the matter than lodging this complaint to your good office, hoping that sanity prevails at Inter-City Bus Terminus.
Kindly facilitate my refund from Kuhoma Transport for the fare by my son and his friend as they did not travel by that bus.
I also hope that measures are introduced to protect the travelling public from such ill-treatment and RTSA should strongly consider opening a help desk at Inter-city bus station to curb such unscrupulous bus crews.
I thank you in anticipation.
Pelekelo Liswaniso
Online/Production Editor
Cell: 097-7-280464
c.c Commuter Rights Association of Zambia
c.c. Zambia Consumer Association (ZACA)
posted by aydpels @ 7:01 AM
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