Eba Kandovazu
THE war in Ukraine and the Covid 19 pandemic have disrerrupted the supply of some essential parts for the maintenance of the City of Windhoek buses.
City of Windhoek spokesperson Harold Akwenye says for the last two weeks it has been difficult to acquire the parts required from South Africa. Some of the routes of the City bus service have been affected by the disruption of the supply of parts.
According to Akwenye, the needed parts are mainly ordered from South Africa, which is struggling to maintain stock levels, because of disruptions of the supply lines on the international market.
“Due to the turmoil in the world as a result of Covid and the ongoing conflict, at the moment we have been struggling with the maintenance of the buses. Due to the turmoil in the world as a result of Covid and the ongoing conflict [Ukraine] the parts needed to maintain the buses are taking longer than expected.
We are dealing with the challenge and hope to normalize in order to start serving the routes smoothly again. The figures are difficult to quantify at this point in time. Parts of Katutura, Klein Windhoek, Cimbabacia and Robert Mugabe have been affected,” Akwenye said.
Maria Sheetekela,30, who has been using the bus services for the last four years says her life has been endangered as a result.
“We have been suffering for the last two weeks. We wait at the bus stop at 5 am but there are no buses and we haven’t even been notified.We are now forced to walk to Miami service station or B1 and this is dangerous because the sun isn’t even out yet. We now have to fork out N$26 which we don’t even have,” she said.
