The rain is back again and with is comes the nightmare of increased traffic congestion in the CBD.  Whether traveling by public transport or by car, I am usually home by 5:30pm at the very latest, but last night I got home just before 7:30pm. I left work yesterday at 4:30pm as usual and rushed to catch a combi, so I could at least get home before the looming dark gray clouds that threatened heavy rains, burst.

Getting into town took longer than usual, and by the time I got to the rank to get my bus home, there was a huge crowd causing presha, and no combis in sight, as they were all stuck in the mammoth city-wide traffic jam. After getting thoroughly soaked and trampled by numerous stampedes of desperate commuters, and wading through the dirty water flowing through the streets, I gave up and called for back-up.

My uncle, who himself was driving through town, arrived nearly an hour after I had placed the call. By then I had given up on even shielding myself from the pelting rain and was walking calmly through the traffic, to where he too was stuck in traffic. I was so relieved to finally be in a car and on my way out of town, until we reached the intersection of Samora Machel and Leopold Takawira, and witnessed the hugest display of selfishness, chaos and mayhem I’ve seen in a while.

The picture above, which I took with my phone, depicts only a fraction of the sheer madness that prevailed for the hour or so we were stuck, motionless at this intersection, my wet clothes slowly drying on my body.

Despite the fully functional traffic lights motorists drove according their own selfish rules, proceeding bumper-to-bumper through red traffic lights in the scramble to get home, all the while, causing more congestion, until the traffic, that had once been moving at a snail pace ground to complete halt, and we were all well and truly stuck.

While in the gridlock, we discussed the poor planning of road networks and lack of adequate upgrades of existing infrastructure, and the need for an upgrade of the public transport system and how it seemed that these days, “everyone, and their mama” has a car, and yet the roads are not much different from what they were 10 years ago. Despite the good conversation, I was growing restless, and outside several people had gotten out of their cars and were shouting at just about anyone, in their impatience.

Out from the chaos stepped an ordinary seeming man, with an extraordinary plan to set us all free. After having assessed the varying situations, this natural leader began to hand out instructions to surprisingly compliant motorists and things began to move. More of these self-appointed traffic coordinators began working their magic through the web of confusion until, eventually, our car left the intersection.

I looked back at the madness we had just left, all the time wondering where the police were in all this?

This entry was posted on November 3rd, 2011 at 1:19 pm by Varaidzo Tagwireyi and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.