Daladala operators can borrow a leaf from Malawi

Commuter bus conductors have an obligation to ensure the passengers on board are ferried to their destinations while guaranteeing their safety and security.

Being the key advisors to the commuter drivers, in most cases they are the ones who dictate the number of passengers to be taken in and whether the bus should, at that particular moment move or not.

Amwene, mwayiwala chenji chanu dzatengeni! (Brother, you forgot your change, take it), Lucius Nyirenda, a minibus conductor plying from Blantyre city centre to Limbe, an outskirt township here in Malawi , cried out as he ran hurriedly towards me.

It is very rare, I must say, for a daladala conductor in Dar es Salaam, to dash at a passenger just to give change he or she had forgotten.

I vividly remember an experience three years ago when I jumped into a minibus plying between Posta Mpya, Dar es salaam central business town and Mwenge on the outskirt of the city.

I had a ten thousand Shilling note (10000/-) with me and when the minibus conductor asked for the fare, he bitterly criticized me for giving him such a very big note.

`How can you give me such a very big note, where do you think I will get the change? You will get your change when we reach Mwenge, ok?` fumed the conductor without even giving me a ticket.

Upon reaching Mwenge, I forgot to remind the guy my change and just dropped before catching another minibus to Ubungo where I was staying by then.

No sooner had the conductor for the Ubungo bus approached me when I remembered that I had forgotten my 9,800/- change.

I then hurriedly went back to Mwenge to trace the conductor and get back my change but I found the minibus already gone on. I waited for almost two hours before it came back.

When I approached the conductor for my forgotten-change, he blatantly refused being the one and demanded a minibus ticket to verify my claims.

Oh gosh! He had also not given me the ticket. My explanation did not bear any fruit as the guy instructed his driver to move away for another trip while irritatingly telling me `chunga sana kijana, leo Utalijua jiji` (watch out young man, today you will know the city)
But in Malawi , things seem to be different with the minibus conductors.

I was amazed when Nyirenda came running after me with my change.

I looked puzzled because I was a distant away and had even forgotten the minibus that I boarded.

No wonder even the onlookers had their eyes on me and wondered why I took so much time before making my mind and received the money.

That was on Monday in December 2006. I was on my way to the office, situated at the Blantyre central business town.

I was a new in town, only a week old, and as such, not used to the hustles and bustles of the commercial and busiest city in Malawi.

A few weeks later, Juliet Abuiin, my colleague from Uganda also paid excessive fare unknowingly but when the conductor realized that he had been given more money he quickly returned the balance.

Yes! It is all about human trust, kindness and also self respect between the conductor and passengers, something that it is very rare in many areas but believe you me, it happens in Blantyre, Malawi .

In most cases a minibus conductor would collect the money from all the passengers regardless of the size of note then after traveling for a short distance, the conductor would start asking the passengers one after another how much they gave him.

That way he gives back the correct change to every passenger who had overpaid and no one would cheat in order to get more than what he deserves.

In the event that a passenger forgets the amount, the conductor would normally remind them and things would go that way smoothly.

Usually the buses do not overload and no passenger stands between the seats.

Over crowding is rare. I asked one minibus conductor called John Mkandawire how this works out in Malawi and not in Tanzania.

He told me that all conductors in Malawi are used to the system and if one deliberately decides to flout the practice, his driving license would be revoked immediately.

`Traffic police in Malawi are very strict, that's why you see them everywhere, before you begin a trip, you must make sure that your minibus is in good order and it has no defect that may attract a penalty,` explained Mkandawire.

The conductors are also usually considerate. It happens that when a passenger does not have sufficient money for the fare he or she would be ferried to their destination regardless of the distance.

However, conductors in Malawi do not wear uniforms. I understand the uniform system was once tried (last year) and nobody knows why it never worked.

However it is difficult to differentiate between a conductor and a passenger except of course when he asks for the fare.

Sometimes in the past, there were no defined bus stops in Malawi so drivers used to park along the roads such that there were some streets that had completely been closed just to accommodate the minibuses.

If you were a new person in Malawi , you would get problems to locate the minibus to your destination without asking for direction.

But now the situation has changed .Again, I do not remember seeing a driver of a city commuter bus refusing to take passengers to their destination as stipulated in the licence even if there is only one passenger on the bus.

But it is commonplace in Dar es Salaam.