LOCAL Government minister July Moyo yesterday told
Parliament that 22 investors from local and abroad had expressed interest in
struggling State-owned transport operator, Zimbabwe United Passenger Company
(Zupco) as government steps up selling off its loss-making companies.
Moyo was speaking before the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Local Government on the strategy to turn around Zupco.
Buhera South MP Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu PF) said
privatisation of the transport operator must be implemented carefully in order
to stop political bigwigs from taking over the company and further destroying
it.
“Zupco is an area where business, labour, and government
are interested to ensure that public transport is consistent, and we have
looked at the Chinese, Scandinavian, and British models, where privatisation of
public transport was disastrous and expensive,” Moyo said.
“We ended up deciding to go for partial privatisation of
Zupco to get some investors, and already, 22 potential investors — both local
and international — are interested in coming in because they know that this is
big business,” he said.
Moyo said government should consider warehousing the $16,1
million Zupco debt in order to ensure that the partial privatisation process
succeeds, given that government has got shares in Zupco.
“Partial privatisation will give us a chance to see how
Zupco can be best run. We know that when Zupco is fully operating, we will have
a lot of problems because there are vested interests in mushikashikas and
kombis, but as of now, government has taken a decision to (partially)
privatise,” Moyo said.
He said it was important for Zupco to downsize its staff,
as it had a complement of 351 staff against 56 buses. Newsday
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