A bus ride is out of the question. What was once cheap and unremarkable is now a luxury for families on ever-shrinking budgets, instead, mass transportation increasingly means two wheels and pedal power.
Things have changed so much – I never thought I would be forced to ride to school, said Masikosana, 14, attending her first year at Evelyn Girls’ High School. At dawn each morning she teams up with three boys from her neighbourhood in a mini cycling club.
The boys are a great help when one of my wheels punctures or the chain comes unstuck, said Masikosana. She keeps a tube of gum and patches among the books in her satchel. Her companions leave Masikosana at the gates of her school before heading up the road to Milton Boys’ High.
It’s the only way she can get to school with these frequent increases in fees and unpredictable hikes in bus fares, said Claire Ngulube, Masikosana’s mother, who runs a dressmaking shop in the city.
Masikosana is less than keen on having to make the daily 30-km round trip between school and home. The bike gives me problems because of its condition. I often get to school tired and am unable to concentrate, she said.
Ngulube said sending Masikosana to boarding school was not an alternative to her cycling marathon because of the food shortages pupils often suffer.
Zimbabwean boarding schools are also notorious for demanding unbudgeted mid-term top up fees to restock empty pantries as a result of galloping inflation, now estimated by the IMF to be over 150,000%.Â
Commuters are now forced to fork out Z$3 million for an average trip – three times more than they paid just before Christmas. Minibus-taxi operator Sidney Gurura denied that the vehicle owners were exploiting the situation, and said they themselves were victims of the fuel price. If we don’t raise fares we will go bust and stop operating.
Informal fuel traders who import from Botswana have filled the supply gap left by the state-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), which has failed to import adequate supplies due to a long-standing foreign currency crunch.
Second-hand goods trader Rasheed Mohammed is not complaining. Since schools opened in January he has been pestered by parents trying to get their hands on bikes for their children. Anything on two wheels with a frame is snapped up as soon as we
receive it, Mohammed said. New bicycles are beyond their reach and few
people are letting go of bicycles they already have because they are handy
during the current fuel crisis. – IRIN