Commuters and the public in general have reacted with fury and anger into what they see as operators who have turned themselves into a law unto themselves.
The strike came after the Gaborone Taxis and Local Bus Service Association had objected to the buses from neighbouring villages dropping passengers at bus stops inside the city centre. According to the Taxi Association, the buses were interfering in the routes that were to be plied by the local transport operators. The position of the association is that the busess should drop passengers at the main bus terminus. Incidentally, the bus operators and the passengers had entered into this arrangement that has rubbed the taxi and combi operators the wrong way because they contend that this practice is undercutting their business.
At the height of the strike, women had to discard their stilettos for sneakers and men had to arrive at their work places with dusty shoes after the long journeys they took in the cold windy morning. Parents without cars had to figure out an alternative of sending their children to school. Despondent mothers aimlessly clutched to their babies hoping that a Good Samaritan would give them a lift to clinics.
Perhaps in jest, some Combi conductors seemed to revel at sheer power that they had as some were heard shouting: "we have long told you that you need us!"
To the stranded passengers, this was no laughing matter.
"These people who claim that they have grievances do not care about anyone else but themselves. They never care about their passengers, everything has to go their way. They are like big babies," said Pelonomi Montsho who sells airtime in the city and stays in Tlokweng.
She asserted that she does not see any problem with the buses that ferry passengers from the neighbouring villages and drop them off at their work places at no cost. "If that was to be stopped these people would suffer. It is not like they get paid loads of money but rather they have made arrangement that works pretty well for them. They cannot afford to pay extra money that these combi men want them to," Montsho said.
Another woman who works at the Gaborone station Neo Pule said that the combi men are driven by selfishness and greed. "I arrived very late at work because I had to hitch hike in the morning. These combi operators are driven by their own selfishness and greed, they look down upon their passengers and everything had to be about them," said 31-year-old Pule who stays in Mmopane.
She explained that on a daily basis, they have to deal with conductors that are rude to them, forced to sit squashed in a seat that is meant for three but invariably carries four and wait for longer hours at the bus stops.
Another man who however does not use public transport, Atamelang Mokgare feels that it is time that the city council started providing public transport. He indicated that the bus, taxis and combi operators do not seem to understand that they are lucky to even be operating their services.
"They should count their luck for even getting a route. They must not behave as if it is a right for them to be providing that service. The bus operators that they are talking about are their competitors and this is how it should be.
Instead of punishing the passengers, they should think of business strategies that can out-compete the buses," he said. He indicated that the association must not count on minister Lesego Motsumi to arbitrate in the matter but go to court if they feel that they have a case.
"They must not make the consumer suffer," Mokgare said.
