Groundnuts and ditloo in the midst of smog

| Friday April 16, 2010 00:00

It may be small, but it is a veritable source of hope for those plying their trade in the informal business sector. It appears to be the sole place where they can make money to put food on the table. They get into the rank early in the morning and leave late in the evening. The number of taxis and buses here has grown over the years and is now seemingly beyond the rank's holding capacity. 

Vending and hawking has substantially grown here too. As buses and taxis are queued up for passengers, the side pavement is jam-packed with vendors and hawkers offering a whole array of goods. The sidewalk on the left side of the road leading into the rank is lined up with vendors selling vegetables, while the one on the right side has vendors selling cigarettes, snacks, pop-ice and sweets.

This commercial bustle has seen backyard round and square tables taken to the rank to place atop them sweets, crispies, payphones and airtime coupons. The middle-aged women man the stalls under the shade of huge umbrellas. Much camaraderie prevails among these women who pool their money to buy lunch and share. They even 'cover' for one another in case one of them has gone on some errand. Here and there are the ladies selling airtime in their orange, yellow and green aprons for the three cellular phone companies: Orange, Mascom and be Mobile. 'Airtime! Airtime!,' they call out to draw attention. Some people stop to buy, others signal with their hands that they do not need it, while yet others give the colourful women a cold shoulder.

'Business becomes much better towards the end of the month. The taxi drivers and passengers buy. On some days, I just spend the whole day here and not sell much. Sometimes I feel like giving up selling and look for a job though it's difficult to find one,' says soft-spoken, Neo Lesego, as she sits arms folded by her stall. A taxi driver opens a cooler box of one the vendors and takes out a soft drink. 'Put it back,' Lesego admonishes him.

'Don't worry, I'll be back to pay,' replies the cabbie as he dashes off in his taxi full of passengers. The taxi marshal is busy ticking off the cars as they leave the rank. Some taxi drivers are leaning against their cars shooting the breeze.

It is mid-month and passengers are coming in dribs and drabs. Godfrey Ndlovu, a route marshal for Selepa, says the taxi industry is not a profitable business at all because passengers only use taxis from the 24th to the end of the month. 'Taxi owners have to pay drivers and buy car parts, which are expensive,' he says.

On the western end of the bus section of the rank are 'kooksisters' in caravans. If you do not have money to spend at Hungry Lion, KFC or Chicken Lickin', these women offer a cheaper option of fast food.

'Prices here are affordable, that's why we are regular customers,' says a Zimbabwean bus driver who has just bought soup and fat cakes. Not far away from here women sell groundnuts, sweet potatoes, morogo wa dinawa, ditloo and so on. One of them tells me that they buy groundnuts and ditloo in Zambia. While business is not that frisk, on a good day she goes home with a fat wallet.

A woman who gives her name as Mma Rufas clearly finds coming to sell at the bus rank worthwhile because she often makes good money. But she bitterly complains about Zimbabwean bus drivers and passengers. 'The passengers just come and pile up their luggage around me such that I am hidden from potential customers.

The drivers are so rude they rev up their engines that belch out their smog on us. When we complain, they don't listen. But even with this horrible stuff, sitting here all day is not a bad idea,' she says with a smile. Besides bananas and sweets, Mma Rufas has a cooler box with soft drinks.  Next to her stall, four Zimbabwean men demand P100 from their compatriot for his luggage on their roof rack.

They look determined in their demand, but he also looks equally determined to refuse. The men become more threateningly, but their compatriot still won't budge. In the end, they settle for something less than P100.

I go to other parts of the rank. Hawkers carrying their wares go in and out. 'Kick them out! They don't listen!' A hawker successfully incites a bus driver to eject other hawkers in order to enjoy a monopoly. Middle-aged men are calling out to passengers for the Mahalapye, Gaborone, Palapye and Serowe bound buses for cash rewards from the conductors. The only building in the rank has two terminals on its western side and a few stalls on its eastern side. Here you get cabbages, onions, tomatoes, spinach, green peppers and beetroot. The women are chatty and also call out to passers-by to buy.

'Sometimes I make money, sometimes I don't. I don't give up when I have not sold much because I have learnt that in business, one has to be patient.

The money I make here pays for school fees, rent and food,' Langanani Ntungakwa says as she sorts spinach into bundles held together with rubber bands.

If there is a place where people show tenacity and perseverance, it is the Francistown taxi and bus terminal. Business may not be good all the time but the traders are always there trying to make ends meet for themselves and their families.