Malawi Coalition of Kabaza Associations and Stakeholders (Macokosa) wants government to scrap off the K200 000 registration fees for their motorcycle operators.
Macokosa national chairperson Moses Mwalabu said the total amount of money required to register a motorbike hovers around K200 000, an amount that is not attainable for most of their members in the current economic environment.
Mwalabu said this in Lilongwe yesterday at a press briefing that was also attended by law enforces and about 100 members of the group operating in Lilongwe city.
He has since said the group has booked a meeting with Minster of State Alfred Gangata slated for October 27 where, among others, they will discuss pressing issues affecting them.
“Due to the economic hardships, many members cannot afford registration fees. We also want to explore ways to access soft loans that would enable us to purchase new motorcycles, register them, and pay for necessary highway training.
“None of our members, including district, regional, and national leaders, have had access to loans from previous institutions that mostly lend to already affluent individuals,” said Mwalabu.
The head of Traffic at Lilongwe Police Nestol Mafosha said registration of Kabaza operators would help reduce the number of road accidents which have reached alarming levels at the moment.
Mafosha said, for example, Lilongwe Police registers about five accidents involving motorcycle operators daily, which he said can be avoided if the operators are well trained and registered for easy identification.
“We are facing problems because most of them do not have the drivers’ licence and have not attended any formal school for them to acquire the licences. When they are registered, it’s easy to track them and manage the levels of accidents. Fees for training the operators have been reduced and this is good news” said Mafosha.
Echoing Mwalabu, chairperson of Lilongwe Kabaza operators Bob Watch that the registration fees is too high, he said registering all operators would help law enforcers to identify cyclists in the city.
The Directorate of Road Traffic and Safety Services has been pushing for kabaza operators to register and gave the group up to December to do so.
By early August, only 12 000 motorcycles were registered in the system of the directorate against the two million operators.
The kabaza operators pay K56 000 for zero to 100 CC motorcycles while those between 101CC and 250 CC, the fee is K77 000. Motorcycle driving schools charge K100 000 for riding lessons.
