Everyday I have a fight. Everyday I exchange words with some man. Not my own man, just some random guy I won’t remember seeing soon after I’ve finished biting his head off. It’s not my fault though they make me do it. They enrage me! In fact they enrage the entire city.

I’m talking of course about combi drivers and/or hwindis. These men have us up in arms over a few small pieces of silver. Fighting our way to and from home, EVERYDAY! They almost always act surprised when you ask them for your change. Before you get into a combi, they treat you so well; asking you if you want to go where they are going, and even helping you carry any luggage you might have. But once you’re in, they reveal their true selves, demanding payment for the trip, with change of course, even before you’ve safely taken a “seat”.

All combi users dread/loath the days when they have no coins or tickets for the journey ahead, because we all know that we will most likely  have to put up a fight for change. Often passengers are given their change, combined with someone else’s (dollar for 2 or kuchatiswa) and left to somehow split this money on their own.

We are faced with such tremendous inconveniences for what should be a purely mundane activity – taking the bus. As passengers, we have had to sometimes become excessively aggressive, even towards each other, in order to walk out of combis with change that rightfully belongs to us. In many instances, these daily battles are fruitless, leaving us frustrated.

I have now taken to praying for peaceful and uneventful trips, because I know that with my terribly short temper, I will NEVER hesitate to lock horns with any hwindi. My anger in these situations usually overrides logic, reason, fear and especially my better judgement. I don’t suffer fools easily, and why should anyone, for that matter.

I thought that the purpose of a hwindi is to collect money from passengers and then sort out the change. Now, if we have to sort out our own change, what then is the point of having a hwindi who takes up valuable space in the combis, adding to our discomfort? I hear that combi drivers in South Africa go it alone. There is no such thing as a hwindi there. Lucky them!

Something needs to be done about this change issue! Below is my personal (and I’m sure, shared) plea to hwindis, combi drivers and owners alike, all over Harare:

Dear combi-people

I’m sure that by now you are aware of the change problem in your industry. What are you doing in order to alleviate some of the stress this is causing us, your ‘valued’ customers, and even yourselves? Aren’t you tired of fighting with us all day, everyday, about the same thing? It’s now time for you all to put your hands together and come up with a convenient and lasting solution to this madness.

I would like to commend the owners and operators for Westgate, Ashdown Park, Mabelreign etc. for managing to organize an official, nearly trouble-free ticketing system for their routes. Why don’t the rest of you follow their example? In fact, why is there not an official, cashable (possibly pre-paid), acceptable ticket for the whole of Harare? Surely that is possible?

Yours truly,
Enraged Passenger

This entry was posted on August 25th, 2011 at 1:48 pm by Varaidzo Tagwireyi and is filed under Economy, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.