The Lusaka High Court has dismissed an action in which three local bus transporters had sued the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) and South Africa’s InterCape Mainliner Bus operators for allegedly illegally granting the latter permission to operate distance public transport in the country.

This was in a case in which Inter-City Bus Station Association chairperson, Azim Ticklay of Ticklay Coach Services, secretary Alex Chule, who is also the proprietor of Zambia-Tanzania Express, and treasurer Christon Vwalika, the owner of CV Transport, had dragged RTSA to court for illegally issuing a licence to InterCape to operate locally.

The association had complained that RTSA had proceeded to issue a local service licence to the South African bus operator without regard to the law and public interest in protecting upcoming local distance bus operators.

In her ruling, High Court Judge, Ann Sharpe–Phiri said the plaintiffs in the matter were not the current registered office bearers of Inter-City Bus Station Association at the Office of the Registrar of Societies.

“I find that the plaintiff has no locus standi in the matter and the fact that the correct bearers of the association are not plaintiffs before the court, nor are they known to the court or whether they are willing to become plaintiffs in these proceedings against the defendants, I also find that this defect is not curable. I accordingly dismiss the action with costs to be borne by the plaintiffs,” she said.

She said the situation would have been different had it been wrong defendants as the plaintiffs would have been directed to amend the process accordingly.

She said given the foregoing reasons, she was unable to make any such orders to amend or substitute.

The plaintiffs claimed that the decision by RTSA to grant InterCape Mainliner of South Africa a local road service licence to operate their buses in Zambia was unfair because it was going to cause untold distress to the locals.

They also complained that once InterCape starts its operations, indigenous Zambian long-distance public transport operators would suffer because of the stiff competition that would be created by InterCape Mainliner due to its financial muscle.

The bus operators said they represented the interests of many Zambian road service licence holders who run their public transport businesses with a lot of hardships because of stiff competition already existing among the locals.

The plaintiffs were also claiming an order or injunction restraining RTSA and InterCape Mainliner by themselves or their  agents  from  launching the South African firm’s local road service business operations.