Inside the crowded bus, a young vendor who carries an assortment of fast foods yells out his wares while shoving the smelly stuff at passengers.
It is a ritual he carries out from bus to bus.
He is part of an army of traders who stand around the shelters at the Gaborone Bus rank waiting to serve long-distance bus passengers.
The vendors seem to be adrenalin-stoked, making transactions even as the bus makes to move, and then swiftly alighting just as it gains momentum.
Their most preferred customers are the passengers who are already seated in the bus. The service saves the passengers the hassle of negotiating the crowded aisle to purchase refreshments forgotten in the rush to secure a seat.
It?s no surprise that the next bus to depart is already swarmed with the hawkers, selling an assortment of products ranging from food to sweets to airtime, magazines and newspapers.
Among the vendors is 22-year-old Baleseng Kgosietsile.
He grudgingly disembarks from the bus to be interviewed. He tells the FPN reporter that the trick to clinch a sale is to be quick to spot a potential buyer, and maintain eye contact with the prospective customer.
It is a tried and tested trick, and some people on whom it has been applied can attest.
?If you happen to look at the vendors or glance at something they are selling, they quickly grab the stuff and push it into your face,? says Tebogo Mochabo, a regular traveller.
Kgosietsile has been in the business for nearly two years.
He sells bottled water, airtime and fast foods. In a good month, he can make up to P1 500, ?but that is not enough to take care of my needs?.
?What I make here is a pittance. It?s a hassle and the attitude of some of the passengers is very humiliating. They can be very abusive. The other day one passenger lashed out at me saying, ?Why don?t you go to school instead of selling food in a bus?? They view us as a nuisance, and not people trying to make an honest living,? he says, simultaneously making allusions to high stress level that is induced by the work.
He maintains that he has been confined to his business simply because he cannot find alternative means of survival.
The bus drivers are no different from the passengers ? apparently.
?I get frustrated at the way some drivers treat us. Sometimes I just want to give up. But somehow, every morning I gather enough courage to come back to sell,? he says.
Olorato Palai travels by bus regularly between Gaborone and Serowe ? her home village. In one such trip, a Gaborone-bound bus travelled some 70 km from Mahalapye with near-to-tears vendors trapped inside. The bus driver ignored the hawkers? desperate pleadings to be allowed to disembark.
Kgosietsile has not experienced such cruelty, but he would not put it beyond some bus drivers.
?Bus drivers don?t have mercy on us. They often drive off or continue their journey with us on board,? says Kgosietsile.
Edward Mafu, a long-distance bus driver, breaks into a broad smile as he recalls an incident that involved him and some vendors.
?The other day I drove off with two vendors because they were taking too much time to get off the bus. They dropped off some distance from the bus rank. These people are very stubborn; they don?t want to be controlled,? he exclaims.
?They are irritants to the passengers. They invade the bus and distract passengers with their products and noise. A lot of passengers have complained to us about this, and they expect us to protect them from the unruly behaviour.?
Sholo Mangubo, another regular passenger of Gaborone shares Mafu?s sentiments.
?I have had enough of these people and their products. They are a total nuisance,? he says.
Mafu?s beef with the vendors is that they get in the passengers? way, forcing them corral into a pack, and thus making them easy targets for pickpockets. He is particularly enraged by some vendors who go inside buses under the pretence of selling, while their real intention is to steal from the passengers.
?Just the other day, one of the vendors stole my cell phone. We have a crisis because we cannot determine legitimate vendors from fake ones,? Mafu points out.
Grace Barobi, a bus conductor, agrees. She claims that some vendors masquerade and pretend to be people they are not.
?Vendors should be barred from selling their wares inside the buses because some of them steal from the same people they are selling to. It becomes a problem to apprehend the criminals,? she says.
?As a compromise, they should sell through the windows.?
Barobi?s other reason for her impatience with the vendors is the litter she has to sweep from the bus after every trip.
?This litter bears testimony to my concern,? Barobi gestures at the heap of waste that has just been cleared from one bus. ?This should stop. I am sure passengers can contain their hunger and thirst for some time.?
Despite disputes that erupt periodically between some passengers, drivers and vendors, some commuters welcome the ?room service.?
?These people are very helpful, especially to the senior citizens like me who cannot afford to stand for long,? says an elderly woman at the station. (FPN)
