With government-owned buses it will be the other way around with drivers having special stops and schedules to adhere to, slowing down Zimbabwe even more drastically. That is if the driver can communicate with the base to send another bus out in the event of a puncture or mechanical problem. What we need is government to support the Kombi owners more as private individuals serving the people.
I often use kombis and have been impressed with their service and their driving. It’s the others on the road (many without licences) who are the problem. And the council. We once were parked in 4th Street taxi rank in the wrong place and a man in uniform slipped spikes under the front wheels of our Kombi and demanded $40 from our driver. Pandemonium broke out when the passengers just told the driver to go, and we did, with punctured wheels and all, to a safe parking area elsewhere.
There an empty kombi immediately pulled in behind us and all the people scrambled into it – which was a free service by a brother who was determined to ensure the people who had paid for rides got home. I was never so impressed in my life as during that exciting adventure!
My question is: is a spot fine of $40 a normal council fine by a council employee when a kombi (with engine running) has parked and waited for a passenger to nip out and buy bananas for his child? For the record, in Athens, Greece, public taxis are just cars and these stop and drop and pickup much the same as our own taxis, and they carry as many as can fit in the car, and the fares are very reasonable, too.
Let's think of ways of helping the Kombis, not eliminating such a vital service. When a bus is in an accident far more have been killed than in a kombi accident. – Adventurous traveller, by email
Post published in: Letters to the Editor
I have never come across a more bizarre glorification of chaos in my entire sixty years on this planet. Bigger buses are cheaper because they carry more people at once. They reduce the number of vehicles on the road and they stop only where there is a bus stop, not just everywhere and anywhere. We saw the buses running for 24 hours a day without any hitch in the pre- and up to ten years after independence. It is the imitation of chaos, from wher the liberation fighters saw it, such as the Greece that you talk about, the matatus of Kenya and others, that persuaded our traffic regulators to adopt anarchy by ruining an otherwise very reliable bus transport system known as ZUOC and later ZUPCO.
Couldn’t be written any better. Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!