Fishy business on the bus

FISH vendors have been incommoding Dar es Salaam residents daily through carrying their fish stocks from the Kivukoni ferry to various destinations in the city, in commuter buses, The Express can reveal.

The Express has witnessed several times city buses, commonly known as ‘dala dalas’ carrying both passengers and bulky parcels of fish picked up from the ferry fish market by vendors to take to other destinations in Dar es Salaam city.

This situation is mostly apparent throughout the day, where the strongest moment is in the morning , where most people are taking buses to the office.

The situation bothers the normal passengers of community city buses due to its smelliness, and this highly uncivilized process of carrying passengers together with loads of fish.

“You can see we are mixed with boxes and baskets of fish like we are all going to the market while we are not, once you get down from this car you become like one who crawled out of the fish pond,” said one anonymous passenger who was boarding a Mwananyamala - Kivukoni bus.

I don’t think this is allowed but you can also see the Traffic Police are watching and saying nothing, what can we do, this is the real situation of our country,”

The Express also talked to some city bus staff, who said they decided to carry both passengers and fish vendors because fish vendors are paying double compared with normal passengers, depending on the luggage they have, where by doing this they are getting more profit.

“We are looking only for money and nothing else, if customers are coming why not take them, this is our daily work to pick up either normal passengers or fish mongers, if some passengers are thinking that we are doing wrong they have to find other buses or they can use private cars”, said one of the conductors who introduced himself by the single name Bakari.

According to Sumatra, the transport (road passenger) licensing Regulations, 2007 Section (1), the crew of a passenger vehicle while on duty shall not demonstrate the following behaviour;

Using hostile and abusive language to passengers; blocking or obstructing intentionally other service providers; driving above the maximum speed limits in competition for passenger pick ups.

Terminating the journey before reaching final destination without reasonable cause; driving under the influence of alcohol, driving in a careless or reckless manner or in a manner contrary to the provisions of Road Traffic Act and other laws; mistreating or harassing passengers or any would-be passengers, driving while attending to a mobile phone; loading live animals or dangerous goods in a licenced motor vehicle.

The licencee or crew of a licenced motor vehicle who contravenes or fails to comply with the provisions of sub-regulation (1) commits an offence and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine of not less than two hundred thousand shillings and not more than five hundred thousand shillings.

Some of the prohibited actions above are the main habits practiced by the most of the city bus staff in Dar es Salaam, but this carrying loads of fish with passengers is the worst one, and it seems to be a chronic problem from Kivukoni to many destinations of the city.

Speaking with The Express, SUMATRA Eastern Zone Acting In-charge, Konrad Shio, said there are a lot of such complaints, where the solution is to cooperate with all users of the buses, traffic police and the owners of the buses.

“We are set to start a special programme this week to promote the rights of passengers on city buses, and we shall start with Kivukoni, and we shall cooperate with traffic police to make a success of the programme, we are aware of the problem”, said Shio.

He said the fishmongers are supposed to use special cars not public buses as is being done now, and bus staff on taking them are aware that it is strictly prohibited not only taking bulky cargoes of fish but even bulky cargo of any item.

“A passenger is allowed to carry normal luggage, for instance a hand bag, any normal portable bag or luggage which is not polluting or disturbing other passengers, but what is being done by the fish sellers in the city is pollution in the buses, which is prohibited, we shall make sure that this problem is abolished soon”.

Also The Express talked to the Executive Secretary of SUMATRA Consumer Consultative Council, Oscar Kikoyo, to get clarification of the issue concerned, and he said the SUMATRA regulations are clear.

There is a great need for Tanzanians to be aware of their rights and the majority are not aware. He said it is prohibited to carry passengers together with any cargo of food such as fish, meat, fruit or veg., the regulations are clearly prohibiting it, there are special cars for such a purpose.

The SUMATRA service quality standards regulations proclaim that the owner of a passenger vehicle shall comply with certain standards set out in the rules. One of these says: “The owner of passenger vehicle shall ensure that the passenger cabins in a motor vehicle and its contents are kept in clean, sanitary conditions”.