There is still no telling how much longer it will take for a Code of Conduct for Minibus Operators to materialise, notwithstanding the evident urgency of the need to raise service delivery standards in the privately- run public transport sector.
Inquiries by this newspaper with both the Ministry of Business and the United Minibus Union – the two prime movers behind the promised Code of Conduct – have yielded no timelines for its introduction. Numerous commuters with whom this newspaper has spoken insist that such a code is now badly needed in light of the unchecked indiscipline, even lawlessness, which has long pervaded the sector.
Attempts to bring radical change to what is widely held to be a toxic service culture in the public transport industry have long been undermined mostly on account of less-than-effective enforcement which is widely believed to be a function of ineffective policing.