“It is far easier to travel than to write about it,” wrote David Livingstone. Had he lived in this day and age in Johannesburg and commuted daily using public transport, he might have changed his opinion. On the other hand, since the introduction of the Rea Vaya busses and the Gautrain, maybe not.
Nando’s recently invited four Flowstars to step into the shoes of consumers in the LSM 6 to 8 category for a day. We were part of a group of employees from Nando’s and the agencies involved with the brand that would attempt to experience the modes of transport that this “segment of our population” uses. This marketing term roughly translates into some of the 21-million people in South Africa’s major cities who use public transport daily.
We are not talking about the “upwardly mobile” or the “transport strapped”, but rather the “betweeners” – people who are working hard at accruing the means to consider choice. This audience is aspirational, clued-up and streetwise.
So, the big day is 18 November 2014. A bunch of branding professionals (and security personnel) all dressed in comfortable walking shoes, and similarly branded T-shirts and caps, meet at the Media Shop in Bryanston. We know that we won't blend in with the crowd. More’s the pity.
While waiting for the funky Toyota Quantum maxi-taxis – Nando’s branded inside and out – to collect us so that we can start our journey, a spirit of adventure is in the air.
The maxi-taxis drop us off at the taxi rank in Randburg. “Taking a taxi” to Bree Street Taxi Rank involves following the orders of the in-your-face queue marshal, sitting four-four next to each other, and hopping in and out at each stop. It might be uncomfortable and scary for some, but it is a fast, effective and cheap (R11 only) mode of transport.
I am in the backseat between a sleepy young man on his way to work and Sunet Willemse, creative director at Machine. We chat away about how she adapted from small town and farm life to big city Jozi.
From Bree Street we walk to Park Station. Everyone is friendly, passers-by jump into photos and greet us back.
Park Station is a surprise. Not at all the chaos that I remember from 15 years ago when I bussed to George twice a year. Not at all a test of will and skill, as daily commuters describe. Then again, we are not there during peak hours.
Park Station is an internal node for rail, taxi and bus services. It is indeed the busiest station in the country, and according to Allan Hill from Provantage Media Group, which helped organise the trip, an estimated 250 000 people move through this transit node on a daily basis.
Apart from a few guys touting taxi rides to Zimbabwe, a group of people gathering around a stand-up comic, and informal traders selling amakip-kip (brightly coloured snacks), cellphone paraphernalia and travel necessities, it is just like any other major transport hub in big cities in the world.
We walk to the Cookhouse for coffee (R4 for a massive cup) and delicious amagwinya (vetkoek @ R1 each), and South Africa rushes in.
I share a table with Precious, a widow from Zimbabwe with six kids, who travels to Jozi once a month with a hundred “food sticks”. These she sells outside the Cookhouse for a paltry R25 each. I buy a “food stick”, thinking it’s a wooden spoon and walk with her to her stall to collect it. It turns out to be a giant spatula. On my way back I find a beautiful hidden garden.
Back at Park Station, we wait to hear to which platform we need to go to catch the train to Inhlazane Train Station.
Once on the platform, we wait. And wait. The train doesn’t arrive. Load shedding, we think. Plan B. Walk to the Rea Vaya bus station. Rea Vaya bus to Jabulani Mall.
On the bus I am blessed to meet Thomas Maswanganyi, a Rea Vaya driver on his way home after his shift. “This is my first job,” he tells me, and I double-take at the friendly 54-year-old, “and this job is easy. Before, I was driving a taxi. If you have children and a wife, you want to live.”
He is full of praise for the thorough training they have received from Johannesburg City Council and the fairness of the shift system. Thomas takes pride in pointing out the “drivers' waybill”, cameras and security systems that ensure that drivers drive by the book, as well as the stand-by drivers that wait at different stations in case there is a crisis. He explains how the extra long buses turn, gets me to guess how many wheels the bus has, and makes sure that I write down everything he says.
We experience the Provantage Activation Team at Jabulani Mall and have a delicious Nando’s snack before we maxi-taxi to the highlight for all of us: the Oppenheimer Tower.
The tower was built in 1955 with bricks that were made from the ashes of the shanty towns in honour of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, who paid for the building of 14 000 houses in the area. Each step in the tower represents an area in Soweto.
We are treated to a delicious lunch at Sakhumzi in Vilakazi Street. The entertainment is amazing: Jabulani Manyoni and Junior Hlongwane totally wow us with their pantsula moves and contortionist abilities.
Flow PR account executive Shaun Demmer describes his experience of the day:
“You don't give much thought to public transport services when you are lucky enough to live close to work and have a car, and that for me was the biggest eye-opener. We take for granted that we can leave home 10 minutes before we are due at work and still make it in time to have coffee and check Facebook before the boss arrives.
“There are, however, 21-million people in this country who do not have that luxury, and who use a mix of public transport services every day, whether it be trying to find a taxi in the bustle of the nearest rank, or catching the right Metrorail train. I felt quite like a confused, albeit beady-eyed, Harry Potter trying to find Platform 9¾ as we strained our ears for the announcement of whichever train might be ours, holding thumbs that the platform we were at was indeed ours.
“Starting at 4am, jumping from our branded chariots into actual taxis (with scraping steel, half a windscreen and the ability to jump embankments and glide effortlessly through the lanes), moving along to the Metro, onto the Rea Vaya bus system and then walking through Soweto – and taking in the view from the top of the Oppenheimer tower – I truly experienced being a tourist in my own country, and boy was it an experience I won’t forget for a long while!”
Flow PR account executive Senzi Dlamini describes the day as follows:
“Most of it was ordinary for me because in the past I've lived a life of queuing up, missing a train and taking three modes of transport to get to work. It brought back bitter-sweet memories, and what stood out for me was the Oppenheimer Tower in Jabavu, Soweto.
“John (the tour guide) was just amazing and informative. I didn't know that there had been a competition won by an Indian lady to get the name 'South-western townships' and that Sowetans were not allowed to repaint or renovate their four-room houses during the apartheid era.”
Caroline Smith, head of Flow PR, sums up the day in the following words:
“It was a day that challenged me in all sorts of ways. I was challenged in terms of routine, as I had to wake up at 4.30am in the morning in order to be ready for the 5.45am start, and I am definitely #notamorningperson.
“I was challenged by the unfamiliarity of the various public transport systems. Driving in my car to work every day is enough of a challenge, as I fight road rage and try to be calm about red traffic lights. I think if my morning commute included navigating the vagaries of taxi ranks, puzzling out the muffled and incoherent announcements at Park Station to work out which train was which or even catching the right Rea Vaya bus, I would also be #notanafternoonperson and #notaneveningpersoneither.”
It was just a one-day trip. I am glad to have experienced that getting from point A to B is not dependent on an individual’s will; that the breaking down of stereotypes reveal the realisation that there is no other.
Mark Twain’s quote was proven true, beyond a doubt: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
Thank you Nando’s and thank you Provantage for a most memorable day.
