Kombie Strike: Day 1

15 March 2010 

I just want to write a quick message about what South Africa is like today.  I sit here at our kitchen table looking out at the ocean and can feel the sunshine through the open window hitting my face and right arm like most other days, but today something is different.  It is much quieter; there is no yelling of “downtown, downtown” or kombies honking or loud techno music blaring because there is a taxi strike. 

Upon hearing the news this morning when are bus didn’t arrive to take us to our volunteer sites, we took the news as if we just heard that it was a snow day (which sounds awful but we were all really exhausted from the weekend) and we thought it would mean no music class because we had a field trip scheduled and wouldn’t have transportation. 

We were all jumping around and excited about having only a two day week as we don’t have class Thursday this week and never do on Fridays but our excitement was cut short when we heard that we wouldn’t be going on the field trip as expected but we have to go all the way to class for lecture and since there are no kombies we have no choice but to walk the 4 miles there and back!

While none of this seems like a big deal I’m realizing the implications it has on this city and the nation.  The strike is because of the plans made for a new busing system due to the world cup being here.  There is to be a specific lane that only these new buses can drive on so they can get places quicker, this will really hurt the different taxi’s here and the people here in general as it will make it take longer to get places.  So people are on strike which still doesn’t seem like a big deal because there are other means of transportation but in reality it’s a huge deal. 

There are 9 townships in PE surrounding the city so how are those people supposed to get to work?  And without a day or two of work how do they feed their families if they don’t get paid?  When different businesses try and go to pick up their employees these employees may get beaten because they are not helping the strike in the way they are supposed to.  One staff member who is a maid at Langerry walked 20kilometers to get to work today, and it’s so hot.  I was told by our tour guide for this upcoming weekend that he had to turn around when driving a bakkie of kids to a day at a camp because he had heard full cars that appeared to be acting as “taxi’s” had been hit with stones or were stopped by people.  A bus in Jo-Berg that was transporting people was burned.  These things are happening because people are so adamant about this strike.

I can’t imagine how much it’s affecting other people when I see the affect it’s having on me, a white American student.  I wasn’t able to volunteer today.  Class ended early and we almost didn’t have it.  I won’t be going to volunteer again tomorrow because it’s not safe and there is no transportation.  My class tomorrow will be outside by the beach as we no longer have a room tomorrow at the University because so many classes have been cancelled and had times changed.  The McDonalds on our corner only had the drive through open today because they didn’t have enough employees so I saw people walking through it all day.  Here at Langerry our normal maid Dafeni couldn’t make it to work so different woman came in trying to clean for us and we had to assure them a day without having our beds made was fine.  These are all minor things but we can still greatly feel their affects, even if some of the things seem like they are working out in our favor.  Nobody seems to give us straight answers as to how common this is or when it will end?  It all seems bizarre and leaves me so curious.  Nobody really knows what to expect but it’s been a very interesting experience.

We’ve all seen good things come of it too besides the whole class right beside the beach tomorrow!  Lots of people out walking around.  The Langerry staff who drives here all seems to be so understanding of the situation and of their employees who use the taxis are in.  At school at the Kombie stations cars would pull up and pick people up.  Plus for a strike this big to occur nation wide (or so it seems) shows how much the people pull together and look out for one another.  I admit it does worry me a bit because on the news some taxi drives seemed very heated and not afraid to continue on with this strike and very willing to go to whatever extremes necessary to see the change they want to see.  In a sense right now all of us at Langerry were fortunate to have gotten extra time to work on 15 page papers we have due on Wednesday!  As for now say a little pray for the country and all those affected by the strike because we decided at dinner tonight that that is all we can do too.

Here is a glimpse of the mountain we went up that overlooks the city I was at this weekend! I figured I might as well post one picture while I was here!