Residents of the Democratic Republic of Congo capital Kinshasa have been faced with several challenges following the reopening of schools in the country on Monday, 4th September 2023.
Kinshasa residents have complained about the scarcity of public transport and heavy traffic jams in the city mostly caused by the poor roads that President Fèlix Tshisekedi’s government had promised to work, a promise remains unfulfilled.
School going children have to take hours to arrive and are usually late for classes due to the delays caused by the lack of transportation and or the heavy traffic.
Public transport at the Kintambo Magasin is now almost impossible to access as the transporters avoid the route that has become deplorable despite the government having rehabilitate secondary roads.
“I’ve been standing for almost 40 minutes, there is no transport. I have an emergency meeting in town but I don’t know where to start. I asked the passengers arriving here in Kintambo , they tell us that there is a huge traffic jam at Boulevard du 30 Juin, I wonder when this traffic jam problem will end. We are only at the start of the school year but the situation is already catastrophic and if it continues for the whole year the competent authorities really need to review this problem,” said Jovic, a state agent.
Meanwhile, with scarcity of public transport, taxi and bus drivers have now taken advantage of the situation to over charge residents.
“There are buses that arrive only for the big market (commonly called Zando) for us who go to the central station the drivers have increased the price of the trip to 2000 FC instead of 1500 FC that they require us to pay , but the provincial government set the price at 1000fc,” Francine, a resident of Kinshasa lamented.
It should be noted that President Félix Tshisekedi in his five-year program set up a program to rehabilitate roads that have for a long time remained impassable but the state seem to be paying a blind eye to the situation.
