The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) has suspended, with effect from Monday, December 19, the passenger transport activities of TRANSPORTES IDEAL, including the driver, for the duration of an investigation into the safety conditions in which the company operates, with a view to a final decision.

The suspension stems, explains a statement from the MTC, from the following facts:

On December 15, 2022, on EN 6, in the Coca-Cola area, in the city of Chimoio, Manica Province, a multi-sector road traffic inspection team, comprising the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, INATRO, I.P., and other local entities, questioned a vehicle, with the license plate AKY 641 MC, a heavy passenger vehicle of the brand Yutong Bus, belonging to the company Transportes Ideal, located in Rua de Mutateia, Matola City, Maputo Province.

From the work carried out on the ground by the inspection team, it emerged that the bus in question was transporting passengers in deplorable mechanical conditions, namely the failure of the vehicle's acceleration system, to the point where the driver had opted to improvise a rope so that another person could accelerate the vehicle in his place, away from him, endangering the safety of passengers and other road users."

According to the MTC, the procedure is contrary to the rules of passenger transport, "and has shocked Mozambican society, as it is a practice that puts the lives of the occupants of the vehicle in question, passers-by and other road users at risk, contradicting and challenging the efforts of the government and society in general, which aim to reduce the rates of road accidents involving passenger transport vehicles, especially during this festive season". (Charter)