05 Apr 2017

Residents of Chobe District who use public buses have expressed concerns over the state of some of these buses, which travel between Gaborone and Kasane overnight.

The experience in the buses, which travel 11 hours on roads infested with wildlife at night between the two towns, is often traumatising, add to that an element of frequent break downs, which simply worsens matters.

Residents have lately complained about one of the buses, which have broken down a couple of times, inconveniencing scores of passengers.

In recent incidents, passengers complained of being stranded in Nata, which is about 700 kilometres from Gaborone.

They had to fend for themselves and find means of getting to their destination in the middle of the night.

One of the passengers who was on board the said bus, Ms Kakale Eleck said that neither the bus driver nor the conductor explained the nature of the fault.

“We waited for three hours to get help from another bus, which took us to Francistown. Then we had to connect via another bus to Gaborone,” she said.

Just recently over the weekend, the bus broke down a few kilometres before Ngwasha Veterinary Control gate over concerns that it was supposedly overheating and experiencing air lock.

Passengers had to wait for about an hour for the bus to cool down before starting off the journey and at Pandamatenga, the bus had to abandon the journey as the conductors announced that it could not continue anymore. Passengers narrated that they had to wait for three hours for another bus to rescue them.

These and many other unreported incidents have raised red flags about the buses’ safety and road worthiness.

For those travelling between the two towns with the intention to report for duty upon their arrival, there has been a few missed hours as a result of these breakdowns.

The public concerns are that due to the mechanical faults, they have missed out on appointments as the buses arrive late and also stated that they miss out on job interviews with prospective employers in Gaborone. In an interview, a worker at JNG express Mr Godfrey Mosime admitted that indeed they are aware of the incidents.

“Our bus had a mechanical fault in Nata as it had an air lock, therefore could not start,” he said.

He defended his employer by stating that buses are not worn out as mechanical faults are common in any motor vehicle and cannot be predicted beforehand.

The owner of JNG Express, Mr Johnson Norris admitted to the faults in his buses, but complained of damaged public roads that he said are damaging buses.

He noted that some of the delays in the journeys in question were due to the floods as his buses were not allowed to proceed to the other side of flooding rivers.

“In the event that passengers find themselves stranded, we immediately organise a bus for them to avoid further delays,” he said, also affirming the words of his employee that their buses are in good shape. ENDS