Times Of Swaziland: LATE GAMES PRESENT PUPILS AS TARGETS FOR KOMBI DRIVERS

LATE GAMES PRESENT PUPILS AS TARGETS FOR KOMBI DRIVERS
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BY JOSEPH ZULU  on 06/06/2018 03:56:00


PIGG’S PEAK – It is time for inter-schools sporting activities, but kombi
drivers are concerned about pupils, especially young girls going home late.
Kombi drivers are of the view that they are being tempted to date young girls
who often end up being stranded due to arriving late after watching games.
Pupils from surrounding schools such as Peak Central, Ntfonjeni, Mswati II,
Timphisini and Mhlatane High often find themselves having to go home late after
the games had ended.
The inter-schools games are normally played at His Majesty’s Correctional
Service (HMCS) sports ground, which is able to accommodate the large number of
pupils.
Walk
Games usually end at about 4pm, meaning the pupils would need to walk about 30
minutes to the bus rank. Some pupils only arrive after 5pm at the bus rank.
While other pupils use hired vehicles to get to the sports ground, some use
public transport.
This situation has left kombi drivers complaining that it made their work
complicated when pupils especially girls arrived after 5pm.
Sicelo Mavuso, the Pigg’s Peak Bus Rank Manager, said it was risky for pupils
to go home late.
He said the risk was that pupils ended up arriving late at their respective
homesteads, giving an opportunity for some of the drivers to take advantage of
the girls.
“They may end up being tempted even if they were not intending to date the
pupils,” said Mavuso.
Mavuso said schools should come up with a solution which would prevent a
situation where drivers would be arrested for the abduction of the underage
girls.
“Some of these girls don’t even have money to travel home,” he said.
Kombi drivers are often referred to as bomalume by the pupils to mean
‘uncle’ as a way of respect, while they in turn refer to them as bo mshana,
meaning nieces or nephews.
Illicit
Mavuso said kombi drivers ended up dropping the girls off at their homes, but
added that it was this situation that ended up creating a situation resulting in
illicit relationships.
Mavuso said the situation was always a problem during time for the inter-schools
sporting activities.
He said this was the case last week when most of the pupils started arriving at
the bus rank after 5pm.
“We expect them to be gone by 5pm,” he said.
He said some of the pupils left the rank as late as 6:30pm, yet they live in far
away places such as Timphisini, Buhleni, Nkomazi or Ntfonjeni.