The city of Kinshasa has been paralyzed by a series of strikes by taxi-bus drivers, who have observed a strike movement despite the 10-day moratorium granted by the provincial transport authority. This recurring situation hurts the citizens, in particular the future potential voters of the Head of State in the next electoral contests.
The strike reveals deep structural problems in Kinshasa’s public transport. The lawyer Placide Luboya Mwanza calls for the awareness of the State, which must buy more buses and reconnect with rail transport to overcome this almost perennial calamity. According to him, the State must drastically clean up this sector in a global and globalizing approach, which must include the various services intervening in this sector. The objective is to eliminate police and administrative harassment characterized by crooks and non-apparent elements identifying themselves as intelligence and transport agents.
Prime Minister SAMA LUKONDE must instruct the VPM of the Interior and the Minister of Transport to unite their strategic and operational intelligence with all the security services to put out of harm’s way all the elements operating without a valid mission order. The two ministers will have to meet with the Association of Drivers of Congo (ACCO) to discuss the two phenomena decried by Kinshasa passengers: the subscriber phenomenon and the half-court phenomenon.
The deep evil will only be greatly resolved when the State obtains enough rolling machines that can cover the transport needs of the population not only of Kinshasa, but of the Congolese as a whole.
Kinshasa drivers have been caught several times by non-apparent elements or the police due to price gouging and half-courting, which are punishable by law. The crooks of the police would also have contributed to the harassment, by demanding the payment of a daily sum, unrelated to their security mission.
To solve these problems, members of the government will have to deal with them. The elected representatives of Kinshasa should also challenge the provincial or central Minister of Transport and the head of the Kinshasa city police, to be enlightened on this situation and possibly do everything to stem it.