Not only is this transport system not well regulated and unreliable, it also comes with all manner of practices that can be very irritating to the unsuspecting passenger (s). Just a day’s ride with combis to and from one’s destination can turn into a nightmare as an assortment of unpleasant incidents normally lie in wait.
For starters, unlike in other developed or developing cities, where all forms of transport from air to rail and road are regulated and time-scheduled, the local combi industry is still far from conforming to universal public transportation standards.
It gets worse and even more daunting when you commute from the peripheries of Gaborone where a trip can from suburban areas like Metsimotlhabe can take anything from an hour (1hr) to an hour and half (1hr & ½). To the initiated, that is not surprising at all, because Tlokweng and Metsimotlhabe combi drivers are notorious for going off their main route(s) or even reversing to pick up sluggish passengers who cannot be bothered to hurry or at least signal to indicate whether or not they are getting on.
Time and again they will park the combi at a stop or just go at a snail-pace while they wait for the combis to fill up.
And just as you think they would have tested all your patience, wait until they go out of their way to overload passengers, cramming them up beyond the allowed maximum capacity, hence you’d often find other passengers occupying what is notoriously referred to as lavatories or toilets (the space between the standard two-seaters and single fold-seats).
Consequently, a single row ends up with four passengers instead of three. Whilst on this seating-capacity issue, it would seem the Ministry of Transport or whichever authority is responsible for this industry are letting the combi-operators get away with murder. It would seem that the owners of these combis usually remodify the original seating capacity of fourteen (14) to eighteen (18) because bending ones legs in between the inner seats of these combis is usually such a challenge if not impossible for other passengers.
As proof that they (combi operators) are not regulated, the state of these mini-buses’ interiors (especially seats) and roadworthiness is appalling. You would be lucky if you have not had your pants, trousers or dress get torn by the scrappy seats during your sickening travels in these combis.
Then there are the so-called boMabiletsa (Passenger-Callers) aka Magoe-goe (Helpers). This is a cluster of guys (young and old) whose main occupation is to run up and down at or near combi stops to gather likely passengers and lead them to right routes. Though some of these passenger-callers seem decent and organized, as a few of them are easily identifiable by the protective and reflective regalia that they put on, not all of them have adapted to this practice.
According to one of the combi drivers, Lebogang Letlhogonolo that I would interview, the uniformed cadres are referred to as boRabuka. These are the official Passenger-Callers or Helpers recognised by their respective regional combi associations. Besides calling passengers to the various stops, boRabuka’s main tasks is to monitor the routes and flow of the respective combis, making sure that not one or any combi(s) cheat others. Besides their attires, boRabuka are also identifiable by the registry-books that they would normally be carrying on them. Asked those books were for, Letlhogonolo would elaborate further, “Bo Rre ba, ba ela tlhoko gore ha gona ba ba tsietsang ba bangwe mo go rona. Jaanong dibuka tse o bonang ba ditshwere tse, ke tse ba tshwaang mo go tsone, ha ke heta ha, ke ya bus-rank le ha ke boa ke tshwanetse ke ye go fola ke simolole pele ko Metsimotlhabe renkeng, ke sa tsietse ka go boa mo tseleng ke tabogela bapalami b aba motseleng” meaning, boRabuka through their registry-books, mark each combi as they go and come back from the bus-rank, and as such not one combi can take a chance of returning on their way, rushing for passengers along the way without having lined-up first at our mini Mestibotlhabe combi-rank.”
At the most busiest of the stops like the Riverwalk Mall by the Village suburb for the Tlokweng routes and Super-Save for the Mogoditshane, Mmopane, Metsimotlhabe, Kopong and Mmatseta routes, one would often come across quite disturbing incidents like altercations and fights amongst the passenger-callers themselves. Usually appearing to be somewhat animated and even sometimes intoxicated from the alcohol that boMagoe-goe freely imbibe in public, they would sometimes utter insults to both combi drivers and passengers. Most alarming are stories of some of them that are believed to have and are still working in cahoots with criminals that have brazenly continued to rob passengers either alighting or embarking the combis at stops.
Whilst combi operators and their associates have their own abhorrent issues, so are fellow passengers. Some if not most silly passengers would through their ‘smart-phones’ inconsiderately/ inconsiderably force you to either listen to their respective private conversations and loud music.
The most amazing thing is, you’d see these mindless commuters putting on their headphones/earpieces. Others would be carrying kids and/or loads of bags that end up extending to fellow passengers, leaving them with all sorts of tarty marks.
Worse, sometimes these inconsiderate passengers would carry with them food or refreshments into the combis that would either leave sweets wraps or marks on the seats. Just the other day, I could not move my foot when I needed to disembark the combi, only to find I had stepped on a chewing gum that a passenger had left on the combi resulting in my shoe getting stuck to surface-floor of the combi.
Unless the respective authorities intervene by bringing order to this industry, unregistered and illegal businesses like In-Drives and passenger pirating could continue to rear their ugly head(s) as passengers fed-up with the combi industry conduct may just as well prefer other unregulated modes of transport, especially considering their (combis) disregard for urgency/time.
