After the end of the Zimbabwe dollar era most youths were found jobless since the money changing phase was long way gone. With hopes of finding jobs absolutely bleak most youths resorted to becoming commuter omnibus conductors. As much as I appreciate the fact that some energy was put to good use by these youths now it has turned out that there is another breed of youths who are now working as rank marshals, especially in Harare at the designated pick up and drop off points for commuters.

Nobody knows were that title came from but I guess the job entitles one to maintain order and direct buses at the pick and drop zones in town.  Instead of helping commuters and bus drivers, these rank marshals popularly known as “MaHwindi” are now fleecing passengers. If you go to the Chitungwiza rank station close to Harare Central Police station during peak hours, around 4:30pm, you find commuters stranded and there will be much jostling for the  few buses coming. After talking to one of the bus drivers asking, what is causing this mayhem?  He said “it’s all being caused by the rank marshals, they are chasing away buses by charging exorbitant ranking fees”. The driver went on to say he makes around 10 trips from Harare to Chitungwiza every day and he has to part ways with $3 each trip. This money goes to the rank marshals. If you don’t pay, your bus is not allowed to use the bus station. This money is not accounted for since its going straight into someone’s pocket.

Police should intensify their operations by helping get rid of these touts because nobody needs assistance to get onto a bus and mind you, commuter omnibuses have placards with routes stuck on them.

As if this is not enough, during the same peak hour, commuters are now being charged a minimum of $0.50 to $1 to have a seat reserved for you by the rank marshals. That is if you are in hurry to go home. That’s just like killing two birds with one stone, charging both the commuter and the bus driver. If perhaps the City of Harare were collecting this kind of money everyday one would hope that we would have better shelter at the stations.

This entry was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 10:01 am by Lenard Kamwendo and is filed under Governance, Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.