The Sunday News
ONCE the colonial project was in place and the Ndebele people were evicted from places that were being turned into mining compounds, urban commercial and industrial centres and agricultural enterprises, it was essential to turn to the same people for labour needs.
The proletarianisation of the peasants had started in earnest. The mines needed miners and when there were no immediate volunteers tax laws were instituted that sought to force the people to sell their labour in order to be able to pay the stipulated taxes such as hut and poll tax.
In some instances forced labour, isibhalwa/chibharo was resorted to. Initially, some Ndebele people became client workers on farms, paying for their continued stay with their labour. The towns in particular required a lot of cheap and unskilled labour. There was increasing demand for residences, roads infrastructure, factories and various social amenities. The rural folk were being swallowed into the economic orbit of industrial capital.
The integration of rural and urban areas was effected in several ways. Ox-wagons were a reliable source of transport in the early days. Fresh produce from peri-urban and rural areas was brought in by the slow but reliable ox-wagons. Scotch carts, drawn in the main by donkeys, became the new mode of transport and generally replaced the ox-wagon. Even as early as then, there were Africans that participated in that nascent transport enterprise. Gold producing mines such as Gwamazhula and Mbijana (Antelope Mine) needed a lot of timber to run the steam-driven hammer mills. Timber was brought in by ox-wagons.
Postal services were introduced and postal agencies were established in the more remote areas. For example, at Legion Mine (Gatsane) there was a postal agency which provided postal services to the southern part of the Matobo District. African couriers were engaged to deliver mail to customers. They were not allowed to handle the letters with their bare hands. Instead, the letters were held by a specially designed wooden holder. Racism at its stinking best!
There were mail coach services between major towns within and without Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). There was the famous Zeederberg Coach Service (Zudubeki) plying several internal and external routes. There was one that transported passengers and goods to Pretoria and Johannesburg.
The towns became areas of production while the rural areas consumed what was produced in towns and cities and even overseas. Colonial laws were enacted to ensure a steady stream of Africans into the cities to provide labour for the burgeoning industries and commercial enterprises. But how were the migrant labourers going to get to the towns and cities in the first place?
Then came the buses, whose earlier versions were referred to as Msetshe. Bulawayo-based businessman Richard Makoni who lived in Makokoba had his buses plying the Bulawayo-Antelope Mine route. Another of his buses plied the Bulawayo-Gwamazhula (Lonely Mine) route. The earliest versions of those buses had separate cabins for drivers while the passengers sat at the back.
Many African-run bus companies emerged. Among them were Lindela Bus Service (famed for plunging into the Maleme River along the Kezi-Bulawayo road), African Matabeleland Bus Service (AMBS, still going strong to this day), Sipho Sami and Try Again. Many of the early African bus company operators sold their cattle in order to purchase a bus or two and became sole proprietors. Others made some profit from their agricultural and livestock enterprises to get some handsome profits which they ploughed into the fashionable transport sector.
The one man who sold royal cattle in order to enter the bus company business was Siyatsha Fuyane. We do know that the man was husband to Princess Sidambe Khumalo. Upon the death of Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo, Princess Sidambe inherited some cattle from her. It was some of these cattle that Siyatsha sold and bought his first bus in the 1930s. His first bus plied the Bulawayo-Magololo route.
Rather strangely, his bus went up in smoke. More cattle were sold and he used the proceeds from cattle sales to purchase yet another bus; this time it was servicing the Jubakhwela, Siganda and Bubi route. The second bus met a similar fate — going up in flames!
Siyatsha would never give up. He went for yet another bus, this time co-jointly with a Coloured man, one Mfene, the son of a Mr Fynn. The royal princess could not stomach it anymore. She went on a rampage. “Imota zakho zidla izinkomo. Ziphuma zithenga izimota ezitshayo.” Your buses are wasteful on my cattle. You squander my cattle buying buses that go up in smoke!
Princess Sidambe resorted to royal licence and attacked her husband with a knobkerrie. Siyatsha developed a swelling, uduma on his head. Princess Sidambe was of a haughty character. Antony Magagula recalls the day when some unfortunate pig strayed into her royal quarters. She went on a rage, grabbed a short stabbing spear and instantly sent the distraught animal to its ancestors!
Following the death of Queen Lozikeyi some royal cattle, numbering more than one hundred head, were for some inexplicable reason, given to Chief Sivalo Mahlangu to keep. Chief Sivalo lived in the Shangani Reserve. Apparently Siyatsha called on Chief Mabhikwa Khumalo to tell him what he (Siyatsha) had done with some of the royal cattle. “This royal princess inherited some cattle from iNdlovukazi (a reference to Queen Lozikeyi). I have passed on some of them (cattle) to Sivalo Mahlangu. Please, when I die help me with this — the royal princess had two children (Antony and sister). Let them inherit the little that has since been returned.”
Apparently, only 11 head of cattle were returned.
