It seems ZUPCO is now feeling the heat from kombis and reduced passengers due to the latest level four lockdown. The government-owned entity has announced a fare reduction barely two weeks after hiking their fares. These were the new fares:

Distance	ZUPCO Bus Fare ZWL	ZUPCO Kombi ZWL
1-20KM	$60.00	$80.00
21-30KM	$90.00	$120.00
31-40KM	$110.00	–

It seems however pirate kombis and private players didn’t increase their own fares and took the opportunity to undercut ZUPCO kombis and buses which people were now shunning. For the first time, private players were charging prices that are lower than those of ZUPCO.

It also didn’t help that ZUPCO buses were using the official rate when handling fares. The official rate is 85 ZWL currently which means that one USD is treated as $85 ZWL. With more and more people paying using USD that unfair rate seems to have been just the straw that broke the camel’s back. Fewer and fewer people were using them. This was made worse by the level 4 lockdown which reduced the number of people travelling overall.

In response, ZUPCO has now reduced it’s fares: