By SARAH MWANZA –
MAZHANDU Family Bus Services Limited has claimed losing about K15 million revenue since the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) suspended its licence in February this year.
Mazhandu finance manager Hashwell Kalinda said the company made an average of K5 million monthly but that since its buses had not been operational for the past three months following the suspension of the road service licence, the company had lost approximately K15 million.
Mr Kalinda said in an interview that Mazhandu had a fleet of 38 buses which operated along the line of rail, namely, Lusaka, Chililabombwe, Sesheke, Livingstone and Mongu.
“We are yet to have a better understanding of how much we have lost but off the top of my head, I think it should be well over K15 million,” he said.
Mazhandu general manager Japhet Mazhandu said in a separate interview that more than 200 workers had been affected by the suspension of the company’s licence, and that besides the revenue loss, the transport firm had incurred costs.
“This was a fully-functioning business which was shut down for a period of three months and you can just imagine the kind of costs, obviously we have incurred and the amount of money we have lost in terms of revenue,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Mazhandu said the re-examining of its buses and drivers by RTSA at Mimosa Examination and Inspection Centre in Chilanga was going on well so far but the only challenge was that the process was being done in Lusaka when some of its buses were in other areas.
He, however, said Mazhandu had complied with the RTSA conditions and that it was soon expected to start looking at the implementation of the Workplace Road Safety Policy.
On February 1, 2017, RTSA indefinitely suspended Mazhandu’s licence a day after one of its buses killed 10 people in a road traffic accident in Central Province, and because of the company’s deteriorating road safety record since 2013.
Mazhandu appealed against the suspension to Transport and Communications Minister Brian Mushimba, resulting in the establishment of a Road Service Appeal Tribunal.
The tribunal chaired by chief State Advocate Joe Simachela in a Consent Judgment dated April 20, 2017 ruled that RTSA lifts Mazhandu’s licence ban after the latter met set conditions on or before May 31 this year.
The conditions included Mazhandu availing all its vehicles to RTSA for road worthiness as well as all its drivers for re-examination and implementation of the Workplace Road Safety Policy.