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Honda Fit has become the vehicle of choice for criminals in Bulawayo

Published

3 years ago

April 21, 2022

BY MARKO PHIRI

Harrison Kachingwe vows he will never board a Honda Fit — or any private lift for that matter — after he was robbed and thrown out of the moving vehicle in December.

He had thumbed a lift at night on his way from a city pub, and it quickly became a nightmare.

“There were four guys in the car, including the driver, and I imagined the others were passengers, but after the car had travelled a few minutes, I was strangled, beaten up and had the little money I had and my phone taken,” Kachingwe said.

According to the police, this is not an isolated incident.

A police spokesperson has previously reported that up to 75 percent of city robberies were committed by criminals using the Honda Fit as an accessory.

An old joke in Nigeria is if a stone dropped from the sky, it would hit a university graduate, testimony to the country’s high levels of education.

In present day Bulawayo’s urban traffic jungle, it may well be said that if a stone dropped from the sky, it will most likely hit a Honda Fit.

And if cars could talk, the Honda Fit would claim its place among the most used and abused.

One Honda Fit — the vehicle that can cram up to six or even seven passengers with one agreeable paying commuter sitting in the boot — was stopped by police last year at a roadblock and was found to be carrying 16 stolen goats.

The ubiquity of these cars have become a symbol of mayhem, turning the city streets into a pirate’s paradise.

The Honda Fit has become an unofficial alternative to registered public transport vehicles.

In a country where millions are without jobs, the pirate taxi pick-up points are now a haven of touts earning a living, while residents claim the touts work in cahoots with drivers to identify potential robbery victims.

By September last year, the police said they had more than 20 000 touts across the country, the staggering number highlighting not just the country’s slide, but an industry that refuses to be tamed.

After the government outlawed privately-owned commuter omnibuses, citing Covid-19 public health concerns, the small vehicles quickly tapped into a niche, zigzagging through pot-holed streets to transport stranded, desperate commuters across Bulawayo, which has an estimated population of 653 000 but is generally believed to be much higher.

Amid such high demand, the Honda Fit now operates as a utility vehicle of sorts, and has in the process become the get-away car of choice for criminals.

Motorists claim the fuel efficiency of the Honda Fit has made it attractive — and so have the criminals.

Thousands of such vehicles clog the streets of Zimbabwe’s second city.

At one point the police impounded more than 400 vehicles in just one week, most of them Honda Fits.

Despite numerous public service announcements by the Zimbabwe Republic Police warning members of the public against boarding the Honda Fit, the country’s failing public transport system has meant commuters ignore such warnings.

But Kachingwe’s harrowing experience has been enough to convince him that you only ignore the police warnings at your own peril.

Women have especially been targeted for rape in the notorious vehicles. “I just wish more could be done to get these cars off our streets but I also know that it won’t happen as this has been going on for too long,” Kachingwe said.

Amid that notoriety, the Honda Fit has however become Zimbabweans’ dream car, with a scramble of sorts to import the vehicles.

Online, they are advertised for anything between US$99 and US$1 000 in country of manufacture, but can set you back for as much as US$5 000 locally.

Resident representatives say that crimes committed using pirate taxis point to a greater problem with the city’s public transport system.

“Most areas where Honda Fit- related crimes have been reported are those that are not fully serviced by the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company [Zupco],” said Abigail Ndlovu, gender officer at the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association.

Zupco is a government-owned entity and the only transporter mandated to ferry commuters, but has on numerous occasions been criticised for failing to meet demand.

“Residents are forced to board the illegal Honda Fits, and there is a need to look at the underlying forces that have led to an increase in robberies as providing more Zupco buses alone may not solve the problem,” Ndlovu said.

According to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, between 2015 and 2020, used vehicles worth US$1.3-billion were imported, at one time prompting Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube to impose stiff customs duty, ostensibly to promote the local car manufacturing industry.

With the Honda Fit taking over Zimbabwe’s streets, it could be long before the country meets the goals of the United Nations Safe Cities initiative, as more and more Zimbabweans keep importing the small vehicles with one intention: to generate income on the cities’ pot-holed streets. – M&G

Related Topics:Bulawayo Honda Fit Nigeria

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National

Coal train in flames: NRZ locomotive damaged in fire incident

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY WANDILE TSHUMA

A National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) locomotive suffered significant damage after catching fire while transporting export coal to Zambi. The incident occurred between Kalala and Matetsi sidings, resulting in the explosion of the locomotive’s fuel tanks.

According to the NRZ press statement on Monday, “A National Railways of Zimbabwe locomotive suffered some damages after it caught fire this afternoon while transporting export coal to Zambia.” Fortunately, the crew members on board managed to escape unharmed.

The NRZ responded swiftly to the incident, dispatching a rescue train with crews to the site. The team successfully extinguished the fire, preventing further damage. However, the locomotive itself sustained considerable damage.

The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, with investigations currently underway. “Investigations are already underway to establish the cause of the fire and the amount of damage to the locomotive,” the NRZ statement read.

In the community

Human-wildlife conflict claims 18 lives in Zimbabwe’s first quarter

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2025

VicFallsLive

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) has reported a disturbing trend of human-wildlife conflict in the country’s first quarter of 2025. According to the authority, 18 people have lost their lives, and 32 others have been injured in encounters with wildlife.

ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo revealed that the authority received 579 cases of human-wildlife conflict, which they managed to respond to promptly. The incidents have also resulted in significant livestock losses, with at least 53 cattle and 85 goats killed by wildlife.

The districts most affected by these incidents include Binga, Hwange, Kariba, Chiredzi, Hurungwe, Nyaminyami, and Mbire. ZimParks has been working tirelessly to raise awareness about wildlife behaviors and effective preventive measures in these areas.

In response to the crisis, ZimParks has translocated 129 animals back into protected areas and eliminated 158 animals deemed problematic.

“We encourage communities to continue reporting incidents to ZimParks Problem Animal Control numbers and local leadership, such as Councillors, Traditional Leaders, and Rural District Council Authorities, to ensure that we preserve lives,” Farawo urged.

The significant increase in livestock losses, with cattle deaths rising from 18 to 53 and goat deaths from 21 to 85 compared to the same period in 2024, highlights the growing challenge of human-wildlife conflict in Zimbabwe.

ZimParks’ efforts to mitigate the conflict include community initiatives to educate people on managing wildlife encounters effectively.

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Tens of Thousands in Zimbabwe Go Hungry as the Rains — and US Aid — Hold Back

Published

3 weeks ago

April 4, 2025

VicFallsLive

Tanayeishe Musau eats baobab porridge after school at his home in Mudzi, Zimbabwe, where the dish has become a daily staple amid worsening drought and hunger. Once a simple supplement, baobab porridge is now a primary meal for families like his, following widespread food shortages and the suspension of international aid.

BY LINDA MUJURU

This story was originally published by Global Press Journal.

Agnes Tauzeni stands on her parched field. She is a mother to two children, and is expecting another. But now, in a time that might otherwise have been joyful, her hopes wither like the struggling crops before her.

Three times she’s gambled on the rains; three times the sky has betrayed her. Her first two plantings failed. The soil was too dry to sustain life. Though her third attempt yielded a few weak shoots, they offered little promise of a meaningful harvest. El Niño-driven droughts have disrupted once-reliable rains, leaving Tauzeni’s family and many like hers struggling to feed themselves.

“I am always hungry,” Tauzeni says.

She worries about the health of her unborn child, based on how little nutrition she consumes herself.

Adding to this, food aid, previously funded by the US Agency for International Development, halted suddenly in January. That transformed what was already a struggle into a desperate battle for survival.

The food aid ended when US President Donald Trump, on his first day in office, issued an executive order that paused nearly all US foreign aid, most of which was administered by USAID. That agency is now all but defunct.

Food aid in Zimbabwe was an ongoing area of funding for USAID. In November 2024, the agency announced $130 million for two seven-year programs, implemented by CARE and Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, that would provide food aid and other related support to areas of Zimbabwe most in need. The programs, which stopped, were just part of an ongoing slate of activities designed to help Zimbabwe’s neediest people.

About 7.6 million people in Zimbabwe — nearly half the country’s population — need humanitarian assistance, according to a 2025 UNICEF report. Of those, nearly 6 million, like Tauzeni, rely on subsistence farming.

Through the support of organizations with funding from USAID, people previously received cereals, edible seeds, oil and food vouchers.

“A sudden withdrawal can put the entire community in a dire situation,” says Hilton Mbozi, a seed systems and climate change expert.

Tauzeni recalls that her community used to receive food supplies such as beans, cooking oil and peanut butter to help combat malnutrition.

When Tauzeni got married in 2017, her fields promised abundance. Her harvests were plentiful, and her family never lacked food. Now, those memories feel like whispers from another world. The past two agricultural seasons, those harvests have been devastatingly poor.

With an empty granary and dwindling options, Tauzeni’s family survives on the same food every day: baobab porridge in the morning and sadza with wild okra in the evening. But Tauzeniworries whether even this will be on the table in the coming months.

“The little maize I have, I got after weeding someone else’s crops, but that won’t take us far,” she says.

Tauzeni says a 20-kilogram (44-pound) bag of maize costs US$13 in her village, an amount out of reach for her. Her only source of income is farming. When that fails, she has no money at all.

Hunger like Tauzeni experiences is widespread. Some families now eat just once a day.

Headman David Musau, leader of Musau village where Tauzenilives, says some people in his village did not plant any seeds this season, fearing losses due to the low rainfall. The government provides food aid inconsistently, usually 7 kilograms (15 pounds) of wheat per person for three months.

“It’s not enough, but it helps,” he says.

But without any other food aid, survival is at stake, he says. “People will die in the near future.”