05 Apr 2017

Public transport in the City of Francistown is synonymous with taxis, which overshadow another mode of public transport, combis or mini-buses.

Unlike the capital city Gaborone, where combis are more preferred over taxis and where only a few taxis ply the first city’s routes, in Francistown they are a force to reckon with in the transportation business.

Taxis traverse all routes and corners of Francistown every minute of every day and the number of combis doing Francistown local routes began to dwindle in recent times, in particular, in the Blocks areas and Monarch Phase Six routes.

Of the two routes, the latter was the hard-hit as combi owners began to pull out of the route quietly with most of them sighting unstable economic conditions as the primary reason to exit route.

During their prime days, during the 2000s, there were no less than 10 combis transporting people to town from Monarch Phase Six and back and they had names that people identified them by, such as ‘Majakathata’ and ‘Lady Power’ mostly in scripted on their rear windscreens.

They were fancy and clean with good sound that was more popular among youngsters and students, but now there is not a single combi on the route because taxis have taken over and pushed combis totally out of the market.

In an interview on Saturday, a combi owner on the Monarch Phase Six route, Mr Selelo Tsheko, who is a senior administration and research officer at the Francistown West Constituency office, stated that he pulled his combi out of the route because it made no profit.

Narrating the events that led to Francistown West location ending up with no combis, Mr Tsheko said that during their prime days, taxis did not go far into the location, but only as far as the famous four-way area behind Phase Five Clinic.

“The arrival of taxis at the area came as a result to the opening of Shoprite-U-Save at Area 7 in Monarch as more residents started to throng the shop to buy groceries and would need transport thereafter,” he noted.

Seeing a niche in the market, the taxis started ferrying people going the route and even dropping them at their door steps and the trend gained momentum, affecting the combi market in the process.

Currently, the route has no combi available, but only school buses that pick students attending schools in the city.

Those that used to run the route have shifted to the Gerald Estates and Shashemooke route,” he said.

Asked on what could be done to bring such combis back, Mr Tsheko blatantly stated that there was none because nowadays people in Francistown preferred taxis for local routes and combis for long routes to neighbouring villages surrounding the city.

His intentions, he said, is to apply for Matshelagabedi route.

A taxi driver on the route, Mr James Maikano stated in an interview with BOPA that the route has now become economically viable for them as they never run short of customers.

Mr Maikano noted that they worked up to as late as around 10pm carrying people who often wait by Ntshe Primary School street lights.

“There are no combis serving this route nowadays, only us taxi drivers. The demand for taxis here could also be because the route is home to major developments at the nearby Phase Five, which are mostly upmarket suburban homes,” he said.

A resident of Phase Six, Mr Rebecca Ndowe, stated that she recalled the times when they had no taxis to serve them but combis only.

“It was a struggle as one had to buy all his grocery and stash them in a combi risking some of such groceries to break up by the time they reached final destination,” she said, concluding that, nowadays they preferred taxis over combis. ENDS