adminTraffic Friday with General MaguranyangaStraight to the point . . . He is loud with his car horn, too-loud; uncouth, vulgar, volatile and dare I say; he throws a stench! And this is, by all means, quite a fair account of him. He is therefore, clearly, an obnoxious chap. The sad thing (if this guy was not just a ticklish joke) is that the commuter omnibus driver is essentially, a potential killer — and that is no laughing matter. In hard-hitting jurisdictions, he’d be classified a potential mass-murderer! And it is always a pathetic ‘he’. See, the commuter omnibus-driving trade is not for the timid.
In Zimbabwe, it’s a dog-eat-dog, exclusive man’s world, cut-out for the heartless that prize the green-back above all. Women certainly belong to a much-higher class than that. Therefore, you and I will concur that the fairer sex in Zimbabwe, is neither ruffian nor bastard-enough, to associate with the thuggish commuter omnibus low-life. In spite of gazing expectantly all-around-me, I am still to glimpse a cheeky female piloting a commuter omnibus! I am open to re-education though on this aspect of the unperturbed, generally law-breaking industry.
The law though, is as-clear-as-daylight; a commuter omnibus driver must meet stringent licensing requirements. The golden one; he must be, at least, a supposedly mature 25-plus. He should hold a squeaky-clean Class 2 driver’s licence, or better. And periodically, about once every year, he must re-live a comprehensive medical examination, and when certified fit to drive, the qualification is embossed on his driver’s licence. He always needs a Defensive Driving Certificate and what is called the Re-Test and so on. You, me, can safely; rationally presuppose that, judging by the mayhem this guy perpetrates on the road every day, MOST commuter omnibus drivers never fit-the-bill as they were not adequately licensed/trained to take the wheel of a Passenger Carrying Vehicle (PCV) — the humble commuter omnibus — typically christened ‘kombi’, in Zimbabwe.
His vehicle is, strictly speaking, an un-roadworthy mass of creaky metal, crying-out for regular attention, considering the frequent abuse. Usually, unsuitable, overseas second-hand reject tyres decorate his vehicle. Safe, brand new tyres; he hardly ever does those. And he can load his rack-less jalopy to the high-heavens. Some cargo is even precariously loaded onto his front and rear bumpers! The insanity continues, especially this impending festive holidays; as invariably, he heartlessly overloads miserable passengers, packing them in like sardines. And the Typically Zimbabwean, undemanding, happy-go-luck passengers lap-it-up, sometimes to their early grave or pitiable, disability pension. How on earth, this so-called driver can brazenly pass, unmolested, a manned police barricade, only the coppers can explain!
This driver’s actual driving is totally nuts, as it is always a prayerful, hair-raising affair to his poor passengers and fellow motorists.
Because he knows no limits, he invariably starts work at dawn, and knocks off well-after dusk; his can be an astonishing 16-hour, mind-numbing shift. Every day! Watch this; he ‘flies’, more-often-than-not, dramatically weaving in-and-out of traffic; on the road, and literally off the road, and hurtles down, for example, Borrowdale Road, city-bound. My experienced eye has easily estimated the fast ones to easily do a kamikaze 120kph or more. Every day! Because he gets away with it so often, he openly does it all the time! I was actually astounded when; must be last year, a kombi driver was served, by a local magistrate, a two-year custodial sentence for driving in the road shoulder! The law actually takes it that seriously, but then, the sarcasm is that EVERY kombi driver performs one of his worst tricks in the road shoulder; his favourite overtaking lane! Every day! In Mbare and right in the Harare City centre, the kombi driver’s sidekick, the so-called conductor, illegally facilitates loading the small bus, and he does it dexterously, lo-and-behold, hanging hazardously from the back of the vehicle; from an open door or half-suspended outside, from an open window! And in the case of competing crews, the crude conductor-cum-loader can literally drag a reluctant passenger onto his bus! See; there are no limits to the stupidity! They break any-and-all road regulations and trash etiquette; because they get away with it, they replicate it, carefree, all the time!
In the UK, and much-of-Europe, there are very strict standards on the type of person that can be entrusted with valuable, live human cargo. The driver’s licence, according to Wikipedia, must mention whether it’s for an automatic or manual transmission vehicle and also whether you have been trained and licensed to draw a trailer. The devil is in the details! The plenty detail is such that they even state on your licence if you must wear glasses or contacts. This overkill is because they reverence human-life. The watertight restrictions leave little room for mischief. Sadly, in Zimbabwe, its bambazonke; nearly anything goes for a ‘licensed’ PCV driver!
The kombi can kill in haunting style. Brace yourself for the gory detail in this tragic episode . . . In the 1990s, in the early days of the kombi, an infamous, always-speeding City-Glen Norah-City route kombi driver, nicknamed ‘Ndombolo’, for his ever-boisterous rhumba music, overtook in a then-single carriageway Simon Mazorodze Road. He had audaciously, as was his daredevil culture, overtaken in the face of oncoming traffic, hoping to swiftly return to his lane, as he had successfully accomplished many times. This sick driver lived on-the-edge and would brook no reprimand from any passenger.
He was the law. Sadly, all it takes for tragedy to unravel is the one defining moment when a mistiming; akin to an aging, previously unbeatable prize-fighter like the Pacman, Ali or Tyson, who, with an uncharacteristic split-second slowness exposes his defences (Kufumura zvinoyera, as sung by Tuku) with the consequent uppercut sending him staggering to the floor. On the one such ill-fated day, Ndombolo rammed into a Swift truck and took 12 other unfortunate people to their untimely grave; seriously maiming eight others.
Ndombolo was utterly decapitated, his head found underneath the kombi wreck, unspeakably ending his long-running spell of notoriety.
But people, at what cost? The dreadfulness of the scene was such that police had to gather scattered body parts. Then again, how do you pack 20 adult passengers plus the driver and his aide onto a vehicle licenced for 15 people only? The foundation of the calamity is easy; uninhibited speed and overloading – probably the two biggest causes of kombi accidents.
- Gerald Maguranyanga moderates Road Safety Africa, on www.facebook.com/RoadSafetyAfrica, an interactive page that solicits ideas to curb road traffic accidents in Zimbabwe and Africa. Contacts: WhatsApp only – +263 772 205 300; email: [email protected].
Online Reporter