The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
THE eyes of the man known as Pablo are always on the move.
On the corner Fort Street and 10th Avenue, his eyes dart from side to side. As his eyes race across the street, he catches sight of a solitary policeman and he stops talking. The kombi behind him jerks into life and races down the street before disappearing from sight.
While Pablo continues giving Sunday News his version of life on the street, he wants only his street name published. He is afraid that, as a tout breaking the law, he might find law enforcement officers waiting for him on that street corner tomorrow.
He is one of many young men that make money off the street, shouting their lungs out on the street as they direct commuters to kombis taking them home or somewhere close to it. On the day Sunday News visited him however, Pablo’s shout was subdued and only those closest to him could make out what he had to say.
His customers did not object or take offense. Anything much more than a gentle shout attracts handcuffs and a hefty fine. These streets used to be Pablo’s kingdom and while he used to roar here, he now barely whispers. This has been the case since government announced a ban on privately owned kombis last year. Instead, kombis now have to operate under the Zupco banner as government seeks to bring some order to the urban transport sector.
“We have struggled since the start of the (Covid-19) lockdown and for us the most painful thing is to see the Zupco kombis seating four people per seat and doing the same things that we were doing. It’s painful and since the start of the lockdown we have struggled and what makes it worse for us is that we have children at home and they were looking up to us to provide and we cannot do that anymore,” a solemn Pablo said.
As he spoke, a vendor rushed by and shortly after a police officer followed in hot pursuit. The chase was comical, with both the law enforcement officer and the man he was chasing after moving as if they were following a script.
While Pablo laughed, he admitted that he has also been an actor in this movie that was playing out before us.
“We have no choice but to play these cat and mouse games with the police because we need to make a living. If the Ford (ZRP vehicle) comes here and finds this car behind me then they will break all the windows. They have no mercy because how we make money is not their concern,” he said.
While the change in rules for touts like Pablo, who are at the bottom of the food chain in the kombi business, owners of vehicles have also suffered too. One kombi owner Mr Mduduzi Bhebhe said most people did not realise the number of people that were affected by the kombi ban. As kombi owners hit hard times, the suffering trickles down to the likes of Pablo.
“People don’t realise how many people survived off the back of a single kombi. From one kombi you’d have the owner of the car, the driver, the conductor, the guy that washes the car and the Rank Marshall. This is six people and all of them have families to feed. You can tell me how many people are now suffering from the banning of that one kombi.
“What’s the difference between a kombi with a Zupco sticker and one without? We can fumigate as well like they’re doing. We have formed associations like BUPTA (Bulawayo United Private Transporters Association), Nkulumane Taxis Association and Tshova Mubaiwa. There needed to be a sit down and discuss. We needed to be told what plan there was for us because we have been surviving on kombis for many years. That’s the only thing we know,” he said.
Mr Bhebhe said while it was suggested that they join Zupco, the process was not easy and they usually found themselves left in the cold.
“The situation as things stand is bad for us. When government banned kombis, it said if you want to operate you need to do so under the banner of Zupco and for you to operate under Zupco your car needed to have a certificate of fitness. You needed to first fix your car and get it in good enough shape so that you can take it to Vehicle Inspection Department to get the certificate.
But the problem is that once you got the certificate, you’d arrive at Zupco and they’d tell you that they are not taking any more kombis. They’d say they have stopped and they will resume later. A car’s fitness is only valid for six months so you would get into the Zupco programme after three months and when you did, they would also tell you that you need to renew your fitness certificate again so that it’s valid for six months.
That’s one disadvantage that we faced,” he said.
Mr Bhebhe said they were even struggling to convert their vehicles for use in other ventures as they still ran foul of law enforcement officers.
“Another issue is that a kombi as things stand right now, cannot be used as a personal car. You cannot use it to ferry your kids to town. As soon as you get into town you’re stopped and they tell you that these cars were banned and they take it away from you.
Your vehicle registration has to be paid for and up to date and the same goes for your car insurance and this costs you $US100. Where do we get that money when we are not working and our cars are stuck at home?” he said.
Tshova Mubaiwa Transport Corporation Chairperson, Mr Atlas Moyo said they had been encouraged to engage government and had even delivered a petition as kombi associations to Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Minister Judith Ncube.
“We got into dialogue with government last year to try and resolve the issue. The last time we had meaningful engagement we were told that we should prepare a petition and submit it to Minister Judith Ncube but we have not heard anything since. We were supposed to have another sit-down with the Minister but it clashed with the upsurge of Covid-19 cases so we had to shelve it,” he said.
Mr Moyo said most members of the association had fallen on hard times, with some using their vehicles to transport or sell vegetables among an assortment of tasks they would never have imagined a year ago.
“As things stand, kombi operators are suffering. Some are using the cars to travel to far off places and carry people while trying to dodge police. Some have converted their kombis into makeshift trucks and use them to carry things like tomatoes and other vegetables for sale. Our people are really suffering.”
