Zimbabweans pay to be insulted

Where else in the world would you find one young kombi conductor holding command over a vehicle packed with 18 grown adults? This is a daily reality on Zimbabwe's roads. The conductor insults, shouts, abuses and even threatens passengers. Yet, astonishingly, those very passengers still pay him without complaint. It is an image that captures a deeper national condition, a society that has grown docile, where citizens accept poor treatment rather than demand the service they are entitled to.

In any functioning system, paying customers expect respect and professionalism. A commuter in London, Johannesburg or Nairobi would never tolerate such humiliation. Yet in Zimbabwe, silence has become the norm. Passengers shrug, look away and convince themselves that it is better to arrive at their destination than to challenge the indignities along the journey.

This passive acceptance is not limited to kombis, it mirrors the wider state of the nation. Citizens endure collapsing infrastructure, unresponsive services and unfulfilled promises but continue to pay taxes, school fees, electricity bills and bus fares without demanding accountability. The kombi conductor is simply a reflection of a culture that has forgotten its power to insist on better.

Zimbabweans must recognise that they deserve dignity, not only as commuters but also as citizens. If 18 adults can sit quietly while one young man insults them and still hand him their money, what does that say about our collective courage? It says we have normalised disrespect.

The time has come to change that. Passengers can demand courtesy from conductors, just as voters can demand accountability from leaders. After all, respect is not a privilege, it is a right and it begins with refusing to pay for abuse.

Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi
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