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Touts, bus conductors attack S. Group workers
2005-07-06 09:03:31
By Guardian Reporter
Chaos erupted in Dar es Salaam yesterday morning when touts and bus conductors ganged up and sent employees of S. Group Ltd scampering to safety to express their anger at the civic authorities’ recent decision to contract a private firm to man public transport in the city.
The private company – S. Group – plans to collect 500/- from every bus, which daladala crew and touts are opposed to. Daladalas pay the touts between 100/- and 200/- for every trip they make to or from town.
Chaos started at around 9am after employees of S. Group Ltd arrived at the Buguruni bus terminus for work.
The unsuspecting workers were immediately sandwiched by a group of youths armed with knives, clubs and stones who threatened to beat them up. However, no one was hurt in the incident.
The youth, who chanted wanaume ee mapanga sha sha (men armed with knives are ready to slit your throats), described the workers as conmen.
’’We are not moving from here because we do not have anywhere else to find employment to meet our daily needs,’’ one of the youths said.
Speaking on different occasions, the conductors and touts said they were against the plan to contract a private firm to man bus stops in the city.
Commenting on the chaos, the secretary of Dar es Salaam Conductors and Touts Association (UWAMADAR), Shukuru Mlawa, said the company has no capacity to solve the problems in the industry.
He said the conductors and touts lacked everything from education to employment, and therefore were potential criminals if they were pushed out of their present jobs.
Mlawa said the company had also failed to prove that it had an undertaking with Dar es Salaam City Council to man bus termini.
’’This is a ploy by the big shots to make easy money,’’ he said.
UWAMADAR plans to meet Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, John Chilligati, today to discuss the problems in the industry and how it was going to be tough for the private firm to man public transport in the city.
’’We are going to tell him our views because we believe his juniors misled him,’’ he said.
The management of S. Group Ltd could not be reached for comment.
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