Bicycle taxi drivers queue up to buy the vests.
This 31 October, all bicycle taxi drivers working in Bujumbura the capital have been assembled since morning at the office of the Association of Burundi Bicycle Taxi drivers – SOTAVEBU along “Boulevard du 1er Novembre” in Mukaza Commune. They have queued up to buy vests for their own identification.
“About 12,000 bicycle taxi drivers working in Bujumbura city must buy the cardigans; otherwise, they will arrested by the traffic police”, says Emmanuel Nimbona, the chairman of SOTAVEBU. He indicates that the operation will be carried out throughout the country where about 22,000 bicycle taxi users will have to buy and wear their own vests.
However, bicycle taxi drivers complain about the cost of the vests that amounts to BIF 13, 000 for each. “How on earth shall I have this amount while transportation fees do not exceed BIF 500? Bad enough, we are often arrested by the traffic police in different neighborhoods because we don’t wear it and we must pay BIF 5,000 to get back our bicycles”, says Nzeyimana, a bicycle taxi driver met on the ground.
For him, it would be better to decentralize the service in different neighborhoods of Bujumbura the capital and converge on the sum to be paid. “Today, no one is working because we fear to be arrested by the traffic police. It is not possible to accelerate the process as cardigans are sold in one place. The duration should be extended for us to have enough time to collect that money”, he says.
Nimbona says bicycle taxi users have been sensitized to buy cardigans since the past two months. “They only rush to look for them when the traffic police start to hunt them down”, he says.
He underlines that the requirement of the vests aims to reduce thieves and facilitate the identification of the bicycle taxi drivers working all over the country.
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