Florence Namayanja, Masaka City Mayor together with security and the technical teams, condemned the leadership of the association for abusing the agreement granted to them to manage the taxi industry on behalf of the City Council.
Masaka City
Council has suspended Taxi operators from enforcing orders in the public transport
business over gross misconduct.
The
suspension of Masaka United Taxi Operators Drivers Cooperative Society-MUTODCS
was announced on Monday after a meeting that reviewed the apparent stalemate in
the management of public transport in the area.
For
almost a month, the society has been sacked into a sharp controversy with the
City leadership over approaches of enforcing law and order; including
collecting fines from errant drivers who operate from illegal taxi parks and
stages that were recently closed.
Florence Namayanja,
Masaka City Mayor together with security and the technical teams, condemned the
leadership of the association for abusing the agreement granted to them to
manage the taxi industry on behalf of the City Council.
Namayanja
says that they unanimously resolved to give the responsibility of managing the
taxi affairs to City law enforcement officers and police, after it emerged that
wardens under the association were highhandedly charging exorbitant fines from
the obstinate drivers, but remitting all the collections to the city council
treasury.
According to
her, they also established that the taxis operators’ leadership has assumed
mandates of both police and court and were impounding and vandalizing vehicles
from other regions of the country; casting the city leadership in a bad
light.
//Cue in: “obstinacy and
perpetual…
Cue out; ….personal gains.”//
Luganda
//Cue in: “taxi yonna….
Cue out; ….biddeyo kulabika.”//
She adds
that the city council was under imminent threats of being sued by people who
have suffered the wrath of the association wardens.
//Cue in: “it is already ….
Cue out; …..unacceptable.”//
Steven Asiimwe, the Masaka City Resident Commissioner indicates that their
office has already received several complaints about the cruel enforcement of
the law and order in the taxi business, which called for administrative
interventions by the local leadership.
He argues
that although taxi operators were doing a good thing to enforce the law, they
lacked proper guidance hence overstepping their jurisdiction.
Bashir
Mawanda, the Masaka United Taxi Operators Drivers Cooperative Society-MUTODCS
Chairperson argues that the decision by the city council leadership was rushed
without prior consultations with the stakeholders.
He says they
will reach out to the city council leadership to enable them to appreciate the
realities of the management of the public transport sector.
