The City of Maputo, Mozambique, typifies an urban African metropolis. It has over one million people; most of them are low income, living on the outer edges of the city, and depend on bus transportation for conducting daily activities. The urban passenger transport industry in Greater Maputo, has an estimated 3,500 vehicles, largely small, 15 seat reconditioned mini-buses which operates in a seemingly chaotic way. This is entirely a private enterprise, provided by owner-operator or small companies, which does not receive any governmental subsidy, credit, or other financial support. It also includes a marginal government company which operates 35 full-size buses. The small, privately owned buses seem to provide an essential public service to the majority of the population. However, recent sentiment, expressed largely by some business, civic and government leadership, calls for replacing these used small buses with large, full-size buses which are more "applicable" to a modern urban environment. On the other hand, proponents of the existing set-up argue that given the financial resources of the Mozambique economy and public budget, the current service is sufficient as it provides reasonable public transport at reasonable fare for the majority of the population. This paper, based on a short-term study, addresses this issue. In general, the study concludes that the current operation works and should not be interfered with. The main role of the government should be to invest in public transport infrastructure roads, bus stops, bus-bays and terminals, rather than in expensive full size buses.
Abstract