© PHIL MOORE / AFP
Bicycle taxi drivers in Bujumbura, Burundi.
The Minister of the Interior and Public Security has just banned some 20,000 drivers of motorcycle taxis, bicycle taxis and tricycle taxis or tuk-tuks in practically the entire economic capital of the country. According to him, they would be responsible for the majority of traffic accidents. A measure which must come into force from March 11, 2022.
Nothing to do, the all-powerful Burundian Minister of the Interior and Public Security, General Gervais Ndirakobuca, remained inflexible, despite these repeated requests to back down. He gave the administrative officials of Bujumbura until March 10 to sensitize their constituents.
« From March 11, we no longer want to see any of these devices in the forbidden zonesays Gervais Ndirakobuca. Even private companies are affected. You can no longer say: “I work for a telecom company or I am a journalist”. No ! There will be no exceptions, it’s the mark of a government that behaves like a parent ».
In Bujumbura, people are appalled, anger is brewing. But for the moment, no one dares to raise their voice even if everyone realizes that this decision will have an enormous socio-economic cost for the approximately 20,000 drivers of taxi-bicycles, taxi-motorcycles and tuk-tuks in Bujumbura. , as well as the tens of thousands of daily users. They were forbidden so far in downtown Bujumbura alone.
Célestin Nsanvyimana is one of Burundi’s main trade union leaders: “ There is a risk that they will be reduced to unemployment, while they supported thousands of people. Without forgetting the poor populations who use these means of transport and who do not have the possibility of traveling in taxi-cars or buses. »
The trade unions and other associations working in the sector decided yesterday to seize the Burundian Prime Minister, General Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni, to suspend this measure pending the opening of a dialogue between all the parties.