FIND AMICABLE SOLUTION TO E-TICKETING DISPUTE

For the last few days, the Land Transport Regulatory Authority (Latra) has been fighting tooth and nail to avert a possible boycott by inter-regional passenger bus owners-cum-operators on Tanzania Mainland.

In dispute is the operational directive by the land transport regulator Latra requiring bus owner/operators to start using a new e-ticketing system that involves the use of Points of Sales (PoS) machines in collecting bus fares.

Apart from other complicated procedures, the PoS machines require bus operators to deposit a certain part of the fare in a SIM card, or with a registered financial services agent.

For example, a bus carrying 50 passengers at Sh30,000 each as a fare is required to deposit Sh1.5 million up-front.

On the one side of the dispute are Latra, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA), and the National Internet Data Centre (NIDC), while on the other are bus owners-cum-operators, represented by the Tanzania Bus Owners Association (Taboa).

In the event, bus owners/operators consider this new system business-unfriendly, as it has “serious shortcomings” that are already causing them financial losses – resulting in the collapse of some passenger transport businesses,” they argue...

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...In consequence whereof, Taboa members had on March 6 threatened to withdraw their buses from service anytime soon.

In which case both parties to the dispute have been in a series of meetings in efforts to avert a crisis in the passenger bus business, considered crucial on Tanzania-Mainland.

It is open to question that the regulator and related authorities/institutions consulted bus owners-cum-operators either directly, or through Taboa, when preparing to introduce e-ticketing: a new, most complicated system for the average bus owner/operator.

Hence the desperate need now for the regulator to thrash out the issues with Taboa in seeking a practical and amicable solution.

If it is true that e-ticketing is beneficial to bus operators, then they must be educated on this accordingly – and given the time and opportunity to realise this on the ground.

MALARIA DRUG STUDY LAUDABLE

Malaria is a centuries-old scourge, killing about 80,000 Tanzanians yearly, mostly children. But, it is preventable and treatable. Several drugs have been introduced to tackle the malady, but most of them have had to be withdrawn as ineffective.

It seems there is no effective drug to treat malaria so far. But, there is hope that the disease, which continues to rob Tanzania of manpower, can be eradicated. We heartily welcome ongoing research aimed at developing anti-malarial drugs from herbal extracts, to be implemented at a cost of $3 million in three five-year phases.

It is a sad reality that some imported malaria drugs are either substandard or suited to some populations only. But, it is our belief that the new project, spearheaded by the Arusha-based Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, will come out with functional drugs.

Artemisinin is the only anti-malarial drug available today, after withdrawal of chloroquine and other drugs. But it is also increasingly losing World Health Organisation favour due to its low potency.

We need therapies that combine the current drug and its derivatives because malarial parasites are developing resistance. Latest statistics show that malarial infections have fallen by 19 percent. But, we should not be complacent on this.