For buses that had been on Ghanaian pot-holed streets for as long as four years, doing the heavy-duty rounds associated with omnibus service, carrying everything from human beings to market wares, the Times thought that that was to the credit of the manufacturers.
So we were surprised to hear from “the horse’s own mouth”, as it were, that most of the buses from China imported specifically for the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) programme had broken down beyond repair.
What made the revelation so alarming was that it was coming from the CEO of the Metro Mass Transit Company, live, on television. Of course, the TV cameras showed some buses that had broken down.
Over the weekend, however, regional correspondents of the Times reported from across the country that the Yaxing buses are on the road, doing business as usual.
How was this possible? That was the question the Times sought to find answers to.
It is a fact that some of the buses have broken down – as all public transport buses in Ghana, since creation, are known to break down within two or three years of operation.
However, we learn that it is because they are not being repaired, and wrong parts are used as replacements when they go faulty.
As per our story on the front page today, it is now being revealed that the Chinese engineers and mechanics who were brought into the country specifically to undertake quick and efficient servicing of the buses have been barred from the MMT yard, according to our Ghanaian informant at the MMT.
Another fact that did not come out during the Transport Minister’s inspection of the company is that for some time now, MMT has been importing buses from Germany.
The two new scenarios emerging from our investigation seem to be painting a picture of “give a dog a bad name and hang it”.
It is not the first time that Ghana has imported buses for mass transport. There were the ‘Agooji’ and ‘Plane Face’ buses of the late 1960s and 1970s. How long did they last?
As recently as the late 1980s, when the Ghana Tourist Board and the Ghana Tourist Development Corporation needed luxury coaches to promote tours, the buses they acquired came from a west European country.
By the early 1990s, those buses were not on the road, though their use was not as rigorous, then, as the MMT Chinese buses are now.
When Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, everything that had been acquired from the Soviet Union was given a negative label. From the Atomic Energy project through agricultural projects, all eastern-bloc equipment suddenly became un-useable.
Is this not an attempt to discredit the buses merely because they came from China? If it is, the ploy would not be new. From the late 1950s through the late 1980s, Ghanaians (and Africans) were fed on the perception that Japanese goods were inferior.
Today the “fall-country” is not Japan; it is China, though millions in Africa are not told that China is a country whose automobile factories today manufacture parts for German-made BMW, and assembles Chrysler and Mercedes Benz luxury saloon cars.
It is these same “backward” Chinese that are building the Bui Dam and who are partnering a Ghanaian company to build and operate the Sunon-Asogli power plant, among many other projects requiring highly advanced technologies.
We ask the Minister of Transport to demand from the MMT management: how can buses which are supposed to have broken down be operating throughout the country? Is it also untrue that the new management has been bringing in buses from a western country?
We pause for an answer.
So we were surprised to hear from “the horse’s own mouth”, as it were, that most of the buses from China imported specifically for the Metro Mass Transit (MMT) programme had broken down beyond repair.
What made the revelation so alarming was that it was coming from the CEO of the Metro Mass Transit Company, live, on television. Of course, the TV cameras showed some buses that had broken down.
Over the weekend, however, regional correspondents of the Times reported from across the country that the Yaxing buses are on the road, doing business as usual.
How was this possible? That was the question the Times sought to find answers to.
It is a fact that some of the buses have broken down – as all public transport buses in Ghana, since creation, are known to break down within two or three years of operation.
However, we learn that it is because they are not being repaired, and wrong parts are used as replacements when they go faulty.
As per our story on the front page today, it is now being revealed that the Chinese engineers and mechanics who were brought into the country specifically to undertake quick and efficient servicing of the buses have been barred from the MMT yard, according to our Ghanaian informant at the MMT.
Another fact that did not come out during the Transport Minister’s inspection of the company is that for some time now, MMT has been importing buses from Germany.
The two new scenarios emerging from our investigation seem to be painting a picture of “give a dog a bad name and hang it”.
It is not the first time that Ghana has imported buses for mass transport. There were the ‘Agooji’ and ‘Plane Face’ buses of the late 1960s and 1970s. How long did they last?
As recently as the late 1980s, when the Ghana Tourist Board and the Ghana Tourist Development Corporation needed luxury coaches to promote tours, the buses they acquired came from a west European country.
By the early 1990s, those buses were not on the road, though their use was not as rigorous, then, as the MMT Chinese buses are now.
When Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown, everything that had been acquired from the Soviet Union was given a negative label. From the Atomic Energy project through agricultural projects, all eastern-bloc equipment suddenly became un-useable.
Is this not an attempt to discredit the buses merely because they came from China? If it is, the ploy would not be new. From the late 1950s through the late 1980s, Ghanaians (and Africans) were fed on the perception that Japanese goods were inferior.
Today the “fall-country” is not Japan; it is China, though millions in Africa are not told that China is a country whose automobile factories today manufacture parts for German-made BMW, and assembles Chrysler and Mercedes Benz luxury saloon cars.
It is these same “backward” Chinese that are building the Bui Dam and who are partnering a Ghanaian company to build and operate the Sunon-Asogli power plant, among many other projects requiring highly advanced technologies.
We ask the Minister of Transport to demand from the MMT management: how can buses which are supposed to have broken down be operating throughout the country? Is it also untrue that the new management has been bringing in buses from a western country?
We pause for an answer.
