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Rosenthal Mutakati Ghetto Blast
He was revered throughout the community and beyond until the day he was involved in a horrific crash and all that respect turned south. For the 35 years Mr Nyoni drove the mine bus, everyone relied on him for transport and conveyance of special messages among different classes of people.
No one ever complained of a parcel being prised open, information being funnelled into wrong ears or money not reaching the intended destination.

Everyone loved this tall dark figure with a furrowed brow that children at school openly told their teachers they wanted to be like Mr Nyoni.
As time went by, so did his influence that it even rubbed onto his children.

They too became popular because in their veins ran the blood of a man the community loved so dearly or thought it knew more clearly.
Finding life partners was no hard task for his sons because women literally threw themselves on their feet because their father’s generosity, good deeds and trustworthiness, had done the groundwork for them.

“You should never look elsewhere. That Nyoni family is blessed.
“Their father is a good man and so is the way he raised them.

“They will make good husbands in the future,” every woman with a daughter of marrying age told herself in her heart. So deep and unfathomable was the community’s love for Mr Nyoni that all his misdeeds were quickly forgiven.
Things, however, changed one wintry morning.

Mr Nyoni was driving workers into town on their monthly shopping trip after getting paid when a car encroached into his lane, resulting in the two vehicles colliding head-on.

The fate of all the occupants of the smaller car was sealed on impact, though everyone on the bus — including the driver — came out unscathed.

To everyone’s surprise, Mr Nyoni ran into a nearby thicket where he committed suicide.
The follow-up party found him groaning and kicking his last.

Investigations later revealed that the Mr Nyoni had been living a lie.
He had no driver’s licence. Why he risked placing the lives of almost 100 passengers in his hands was anybody’s case.
But the case of Mr Nyoni is not isolated.

There are countless men and women out there who are living on borrowed time and living a lie for driving without a certificate of competency as prescribed by Road Traffic regulations.

Only two weeks ago, jazz crooner Dudu Manhenga was caged for 18 months after she knocked down and killed a biker while driving without a driver’s licence.

Manhenga was however released on bail pending appeal this week.
Hardly before the ink on the Manhenga case has dried, boxing promoter Stalin Mau Mau was ordered to perform 175 hours of unpaid work for driving without a licence.

Besides these high-profile characters, there are scores of other people — including kombi drivers — who have been committed to jail for running over pedestrians and in some cases causing their death, while driving without a driver’s licence.

Word doing the rounds has it that most people plying the country’s roads are doing so without valid papers.
People know that the law bids on them to be licensed, but no one takes heed.
And these people are not ashamed at all.

Called “Steering hero,” “chinamira,” “munhu asina mapepa,” “asina jujazi,” and “mutyairi webhaizi”, people without driver’s licences are increasing by the day.

What, with the proliferation of automatic transmission vehicles from Japan which only require one to focus on the road while the car takes care of its self?

Some of these unlicensed people find themselves behind the wheels of kombis, placing their lives and those of unsuspecting vulnerable passengers at risk.

An unlicensed driver is an accident waiting to happen.
To show that most of these people lack knowledge of basic rules of the road, most such drivers overtake from the left and have the propensity to compete with an ambulance sounding a siren.

Some companies have in the recent past suffered the misfortune of employing unlicensed drivers who use documents of their look-alikes who are either their relatives or total strangers.

These people are at times offered permanent posts by rogue transport managers fully aware of the situation because they then become assured of a regular percentage from the fake driver’s monthly income.

Secondary drivers, people whose duties are not necessarily to drive but may require driving from one station to the other or whose need for a driver comes as part of their benefits, are among the main culprits.

Because of their managerial roles, it may be difficult for transport officers, who are mostly their juniors, to demand to see their driver’s licences.

To make matters worse, the police are aware of most of these unlicensed people and make them pay tokens for free passage either monthly, annually or per encounter.

An unlicensed driver is worse than a witch because he knows what he is doing is illegal and suicidal but continues doing it.
Kutyeiko kugara beya serinorwadza?

Gentle reader, being an unlicensed driver is akin to leading the life of a prostitute who knows they will one day die, but cannot stop because they have no fall-back position.

Ukasatyaira hapachina lapusvusvu richakuona nepo kudiwa koderera.
Fuelling the numbers of people driving without drivers’ licences is a corresponding surge in the number of people who are not eager to do things the perfect way.

Most people have developed an affinity to cut deals even when not so necessary.
People want licences but they do not want to go through driving schools, which is why they fall into the hands of confidence tricksters who either sell them bottled smoke or offer them counterfeit certificates of competency.

These people can charge you an arm and a leg for something which is not recognised at law.
Some married women have been bedded by these characters who proceed to give them useless toilet paper, even after enjoying sexual favours.

A good number of people find themselves driving without licences after their efforts to abide by the law have been frustrated by the demand for bribes at the relevant offices.

Matter has a germ for corruption, but where we can help it, let’s do the right thing.
Ngwarira kupoterera pane mudimbudzirwa!

Inotambika mughetto.