11 May 2020

As the lockdown regulations eased for the first time this week, few businesses are now open for operation, and one such business is the transport sector, although the distance they are required to travel is still shorter than usual.

On the morning of May 11, BOPA team checked out the taxi transporters in Jwaneng who indicated that they were finally happy to be back in business.

In an interview, Mr Calistus Dinoko indicated that although there was not much business at the moment as it was only their first day at work, they were nonetheless hopeful that with time, things would get back to normal.

“To be honest, our business has been badly affected by the lockdown, but there was nothing we could do and we understood the reasons. However, we cannot say when we expect things to get back to normal because we do not know how long the pandemic will last,” he said.

Mr Dinoko also said that their business was still low because most people were still home, and that the situation was even made worse by the fact that Jwaneng was a working class town, meaning that business was mostly in the morning when people went to work, and later in the afternoon when they knocked off.

“Right now we are only waiting to pick occasional customers who have been given permits to come and buy some essentials, otherwise we will be sitting idle the whole day,” he said.

Mr Dinoko said however, they hoped that the situation would get close to normal in the last week only if the regulations in place would cease to be operational altogether.

Another operator, Mr Aaron Madira, who is also the treasurer for Jwaneng Taxi Association, concurred with his colleague, adding that at the moment it was still too early to tell how business would be.

 “Maybe after a week or so we will be in a position to tell you where it is going, but at the moment it is still too early to tell,” he said.

Mr Madira said that on a normal day, their business was complemented by schools as they often transported students, but that because schools were still closed, their customer base was still limited.

He said that at the moment, they would be appreciative of the little they could take home at the end of the day to complement government’s COVID 19 relief packages they had been given.

At the Jwaneng Bus Rank, there was virtually no movement as not a single combi was on sight. ENDS