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Yoliswa Dube-Moyo

AN army of people stood in serpentine queues along Herbert Chitepo Street in Bulawayo, waiting for hours on end for the few available Zupco buses to ferry them home.

They wore masks in all shapes, colours and sizes, in apparent fight of the invisible enemy, the coronavirus, which has brought the world to a screeching halt.

Most stood patiently while some jostled through the meandering queues, brushing shoulders and coming into contact with others, at distances way too close for comfort.

For hours they stood there, inhaling and exhaling in the same breathing space.

Sadly, these droves of people have no choice but to wait for the Zupco buses following President Mnangagwa’s annunciation of level two of the indefinite national lockdown.

“This mask is so uncomfortable, I can’t breathe comfortably anymore,” lamented Mr Alpha Ngwenya who was lowering his face mask and had been waiting in line for two hours.

“It’s hot, I need to breathe a little. Of course removing the mask altogether is not an option. I can’t afford not to wear the mask although it’s proving pointless with the way we’re crowded here. It’s really scary to be honest. You don’t know where someone has been and yet they come into very close contact with you here,” he continued.

Mr Ngwenya said he spends the day trying to be careful, sanitising his hands and maintaining social distance but all that goes down the drain once he gets to the bus queues.

“I’ve stopped trying too hard. If I get infected then that’s that because as long as I come to crowd here every day, there’s really no point in maintaining social distance at all,” he said.

Due to the lockdown restrictions, only Zupco buses and kombis are allowed to operate while privately-run commuter omnibuses remain banned.

Informal markets remain shut while borders stay closed with movement of essential goods only allowed.

Some businesses are now permitted to operate from 8am to 4.30pm, forcing workers to make the great trek into the central business district where their employers expect them to report for duty.

But the rat race is turning out to be risky business for those who have to use public transport to get into town.

Every day, the transport blues commuters face defeat the purpose of social distancing which experts say will be key in slowing the spread of Covid-19.

The transport shortage threaten to derail efforts being made to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I need the money at the end of the month so I’m forced to go to work. Sadly, the public transport system is failing us. Transport has become a problem to a point where we sometimes opt to walk home,” said Ms Eunice Chagurwa who works as a hospital nurse aide.

She said she sometimes hops onto the back of open trucks in order to get home after a long shift at work.

“I’ll be so tired and can’t wait for transport for hours. I get whatever transport comes my way first and go home. It’s not less crowded in those trucks and not any safer but psychologically you feel less exposed,” said Ms Chagurwa.

Overcrowding at bus terminuses in the city centre and residential areas has become the order of the day as commuters wait for hours on end for the few buses that are operating.

This has resulted in commuters enduring inordinate delays going to and from work, in addition to exposing themselves to the risk of contracting and spreading the virus.

“I now wake up as early as 4am to join the queue so that I can be at work by 8am. Previously, I would turn up for work very late, after spending hours waiting for the bus and that wouldn’t go down well with my boss,” said Ms Yolanda Zulu, a worker at a supermarket in the city.

She said the paranoia does not end in the queues but it gets uncomfortable when someone coughs or sneezes on the bus.

“You can’t trust anyone nowadays. All we think about is staying safe but it would seem we take two steps forward and five steps backward every day because of these transport shortages and the queues as a result,” said Ms Zulu.

Zupco buses are disinfected after every trip with social distancing also enforced on the bus.

One passenger is allowed to sit on every two seater while two passengers are seated on every three seater.

Social distancing, which is the practice of maintaining a greater than usual physical distance, such as a metre or more, from other people or avoiding direct contact with people or objects in public places is said to be quintessential in flattening the curve during outbreaks of contagious diseases like Covid-19.

However, this is proving futile as commuters are stuck at crowded terminuses for hours on end on a daily basis.

Tshova Mubaiwa Transport Corporation chairperson Mr Atlas Moyo said Government must consider the dangers of keeping people for too long in queues where there is no adherence to social distancing as it is more dangerous than being in airy moving vehicles that take them home fast.

He also urged Government to consider the plight of transport operators who have been without an income for over a month.

“We understand the Covid-19 concerns but we must be roped in to transport people without being forced to join Zupco. People are suffering, they’re struggling to find transport yet kombis are just stationary at car parks,” Mr Moyo told Chronicle recently.

He continued: “Our people are now hungry, the transport industry is the biggest employer in this city. It not only feeds the owner, the driver and the conductor, but this industry supports a lot of other industries that rely on the high traffic volumes.

“We have touts, rank marshals, food vendors, miscellaneous vendors, car wash boys. Some of these people will end up resorting to crime. People will die of hunger first before the virus kills them.”

Zimbabwe has to date recorded 132 confirmed cases of Covid-19 including 25 recoveries and four deaths.

As of yesterday, there were 5 807 166 confirmed cases, 2 510 397 recoveries and 357 807 deaths globally. Covid-19 is affecting 213 countries and territories around the world and two international conveyances.

The Government recently urged private commuter omnibus operators to register with Zupco in order to resume operations during the lockdown period which started on March 30 and has been extended indefinitely.

“We’ve talked to Zupco management to say in order for commuter omnibuses to be on the road, they should surrender under Zupco so it can be managed as one. All we are trying to do is organise so that we have proper transportation networks,” said Minister of Local Government and Public Works July Moyo. — @Yolisswa