This time of the year all the foreigners who live and work in South Africa tend to travel home to see their family and friends. Last Thursday I was chatting with our only Zimbabwean employee who told me this year he is not travelling home. The reason is the cost as like anything else when the demand is high then the prices are generally high.
When he mentioned that a return bus trip would cost more than R4500 which is around $280 I was stunned . The small amount of money these people make and they are being robbed blind by greedy bus operators. The trip is long and slow and takes roughly 36 hours to cover the 1100km. The slowness is due to bottlenecks at border crossings which can be longer than a day of waiting.
I mentioned if he had thought about flying instead because the flight time is roughly 90 minutes and for me is a no brainer. I can only imagine what a 36 hour trip would be like having seen news reports over the last couple of days with busses being overloaded. One bus 4 days ago had 117 passengers when legally required to only carry 62. Another bus today was stopped with an extra 26 passengers over and above the maximum.
The problem is road safety not only for the passengers on the bus, but other road users. Overloading used to be a problem with our taxis that were legally allowed to carry 14 passengers and have been caught carrying 35. One accident had 42 deaths which remarkably involved only one taxi hitting a bridge killing 42 people.
This has been going on for years and the only reason why it happens is corrupt traffic police. Drivers will take the risk knowing they will pay a few bribes and make the extra money. This year however the busses ran the gauntlet from Durban and Cape Town no doubt paying bribes along the way only to be stopped with in touching distance of the border post. The one bus had travelled over 700 km before it was stopped and impounded.
A return flight at this time of the year is around the R4K price which is slightly cheaper than the bus. Not only is this far safer, but far quicker and one can only imagine how much extra the bus route would cost with food and drink.
My Zimbabwean worker had never considered flying because he had heard how expensive flying was. This is probably rumors spread by the bus drivers themselves and why they can charge and overload like they do. There is over 300 000 people expected to pass through the border crossing this week and I would suggest those figures are low to reality.
If he flew in January he could just about do the trip for half the price of the bus trip. I found flights for less than R1500 and he said he will travel back home then and not use the bus. He is educated yet still never considered to check online and compare prices which is the first thing I would have done.