AS soon as Bulawayo City Council municipal officers — the enforcers of the city’s by-laws regarding parking, and the picking up and dropping off of passengers — finish their duties for the day, lawlessness in the City of Kings shifts into high gear.
A full of life scene unfolds at the corner of Fort Street and Leopold Takawira Avenue as a large public bus, operated by one of the country’s major transport companies, pulls up to the curb.
Passengers eager to travel to Harare begin to board the vehicle. Just a short distance away, on the opposite side of Fort Street, another bus is attracting passengers. Located near the iconic Tredgold Building, this brightly coloured 75-seater bus is ready to embark on its journey.
Even though it’s only 5.30pm on a Thursday afternoon, the area surrounding Tredgold Building is already transforming into a busy food market. Vendors are setting up their stalls, offering a diverse range of meals, from traditional Zimbabwean cuisine to international fast food. This culinary spectacle is primarily driven by the influx of night bus passengers, who rely on these vendors for sustenance during their long journeys.
As the sun sets, a different and illicit night economy takes shape on Fort Street. Vendors, capitalising on the demand from night bus passengers, set up their stalls and engage in informal transactions, often involving US dollars. This underground economy operates outside the regulatory framework of the Bulawayo City Council.
“On average, I sell about 50 takeaway food packages on a single night, and the majority of my customers are divided between passengers boarding the Harare buses and taxi drivers,” said Marylene Sibanda, a food vendor who sells isitshwala, rice, beef and chicken.
Business is brisk around 7pm when the second or third long-distance bus parks at the illegal rank that is popular among passengers travelling to the capital city at night, she says. Each takeaway costs US$1.
“Most people prefer the buses that leave for Harare between 7pm and 9PM, and that is during that time when business is good,” she said.
For someone who doesn’t pay rent or any other utility bills that registered food outlets pay in the formal sector, making a gross total of US$50 per night cannot be considered bad business for the middle-aged woman.
Cold drink vendors can also be seen milling around the long-distance buses, hoping for a thirsty passenger to stick their head out of the bus windows and make a purchase. Vendors are seldom allowed into the buses, even when they are stationary. The other commodity that sells like hot cakes, riding on the back of “dollar deals,” is airtime. An airtime vendor who only identified himself as Mbuso doubles up as a money changer — the individuals who sell and buy foreign currency at premium rates.
The night economy at Tredgold has also given a lifeline to taxi drivers who bring passengers to the long-distance buses or anyone looking for convenient and quick transport in and around the city. The irony of the booming business at Tredgold is that some of it, especially the illegal kind, is conducted right in front of the building where transgressors of the law are reprimanded or punished.
On the other side of the street, at the corner of Leopold Takawira Avenue and Herbert Chitepo, one man has close to 100 pairs of sneakers lined up on the pavement. He sells his merchandise right in front of what used to be a building that housed Edgars, the clothing retailer who deserted the building after complaining that competition from unlicensed clothes vendors was pushing the giant retailer out of business. The sneakers cost between US$10 and US$30.
After Edgars vacated the building, it was taken over by numerous small shopowners selling a variety of items, including cell phones, clothes, and kitchenware. The long-distance buses that operate overnight on the Bulawayo/Harare route have been flagged by the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) as operating illegally, as the location is not an authorised bus terminus. The BCC has not yet responded to questions sent to the municipality’s communication and public relations department.
Overnight travel has become a lucrative business for bus companies, and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) is also looking to capitalise on this market. The NRZ is working on resurrecting its passenger coaches following a complete overhaul of its railway network, which is currently in a poor state.
“We suspended our passenger coaches for operational reasons as it was no longer profitable. NRZ is working on revising passenger coaches operations but that can only be done when the freight services is profitable to a point that we can subsidise passenger coaches,” said NRZ public affairs and stakeholder relations manager, Mr Andrew Kunambura
Passenger services are currently suspended due to financial constraints and the poor condition of the existing coaches. According to Section 37 of the Railway Act, passenger services are supposed to be subsidised by the Government, as they are more of a social service than a business venture.
Mr Kunambura stated that once the NRZ addresses the freight side of its business and ensures it runs profitably, the company will be able to efficiently run passenger trains, subsidising the operations as part of their corporate social responsibility.
Earlier this year, NRZ general manager, Miss Respina Zinyanduko, mentioned that the parastatal aims to emulate the rail and port authority of Mozambique, CFM Mozambique, which provides a 90 percent subsidy to its passenger service.
Commenting on the illegal activities that occur at night around the Tredgold area, Bulawayo United Residents’ Association Chairman Mr Winos Dube said there is a need for the BCC to introduce a night shift for its municipal security department.
“People engage in all sorts of illegal activities at night around the Tredgold area taking advantage of the fact that BCC officers will have knocked off. At this rate, Bulawayo will turn into a slum as a result of people breaking the law by selling food everywhere and buses picking up and dropping off passengers at every street corner,” said Mr Dube.
