The Zimbabwean High Court has ruled in favour of kombi owners who were challenging the ZUPCO imposed monopoly. The ruling by the High Court makes it clear that the ZUPCO imposed monopoly is illegal. Back in 2020, the controversial Minister July Moyo made a law that made ZUPCO the sole urban transporter resulting in untold suffering as ZUPCO struggled to deal with demand. Commuters would be often chased out of town by riot police because they were yet to catch a bus after curfew. Despite all this, the government continued to justify the ZUPCO monopoly and even went on to waste millions of dollars bringing in new buses.
The lawsuit against the government was brought by Tshova Mubaiwa a network of kombi owners operating in Bulawayo in October of last year. The network was challenging the legality of the order by Minister July Moyo that only ZUPCO buses should be allowed to ply urban routes. Moyo was claiming that the order was necessary as it was made in the best interest of public health even though ZUPCO franchised kombies often violated COVID-19 while private intercity buses adhered to COVID-19 provisions.
The ban on kombis left scores of people unemployed overnight. The government scoffed at their plight and did not seem interested of hear their case. A lot of lawyers had commented that the provisions by Minister Moyo were probably unconstitutional but he persisted. In the end, the court found the order unlawful and against the constitution.
Minister July Moyo has not been quiet either, he is pushing another controversial measure in the form of the Pomona dumping ground deal. The kombi ban is part of a series of controversial measures that are probably illegal from the onset. The government just pushes them through because it knows that by the time the courts intervene (some would even argue that by the time the government allows the courts to intervene) the damage would have been done. The bans even when reversed would be a fait accompli.
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