Transportation and Strikes

Peace Corps policy states that we are not allowed to drive a car or a motorcycle during our 2 years of service, so we are learning the joys of public transportation in South Africa. We decided that our first excursion should be under the protection of our wonderful language instructor, so the nine of us all met up on a beautiful Saturday morning ready for an adventure. In order to get to “town” (about 20 minutes by car from our village) we had to wait on the side of the dirt road until a ‘cumbi’ – think 15 passenger van – came by for us to flag down. And it doesn’t matter if there are already 15 people and 3 babies in the taxi, “there’s always room for one more.” A cumbi finally came by after at least 30 minutes of waiting and we all piled in, squishing our bodies into any available space. Things were going fine and we all paid our 10 rand (7 rand = 1 US dollar) when we were pulled over, stopped and surrounded by a group of male South Africans. Thank goodness we had our language instructor to speak for us, as we had no idea what was going on. We were then shuffled into another taxi and on our way. Baregile explained that there are different taxi companies with specific routes in which to operate. It just so happens that we crossed a boundary on our way to town.

Town consists of a shopping plaza with a post office, multiple fast food restaurants including KFC, discount stores, and a Shop Rite (grocery store). There are also local vendors set up selling fruit, veggies, ice cream, etc. Unfortunately, the Shop Rite workers were – and still are – on strike, so there was a big demonstration in front of the store. We were told that it was in our best interest not to enter the store as one unlucky patron was made to eat a bar of soap upon exiting. Strikes are very popular in South Africa and can last many months. Most strikes involve discrepancies over pay, as in this case. We have also experienced a bakers strike (thankfully short-lived as Joe was getting very anxious about the shortage of bread) and a teachers strike in a nearby village which closed some schools for a few weeks. The frequency of strikes is most likely due to the large numbers of unions. We have been told that all teachers are union members and that the teachers unions are uncontrollably powerful. It appears that it is next to impossible to fire a teacher, even for intoxication at work, absences over 2 months and the use of corporal punishment. Furthermore, unions often support one another, resulting in massive amounts of laborers striking for a single cause. We will probably have many more adventures with transportation and strikes over the next 2 years!