Avanza vs Tilly’s: The R130 Choice Residents Face Every Day

By Wendy Sibiya

The cost of getting to Middelburg

KOMATI — At 09:30 on a weekday morning, Noxolo Miya was at the taxi rank.

She needed to get to Middelburg to run a few errands.

Noxolo does not work.

The trip would come out of her monthly allowance.

It cost her R130. That’s R65 there and R65 back.

-taxi traveller, noxolo

“I took one taxi from Komati to Middelburg. It was a direct trip, and we waited approximately five to 10 minutes before the taxi left Komati,”

For Noxolo, the cost of getting to Middelburg adds up.

She travels to Middelburg or Witbank only once or twice a month, but those trips can cost her between R130 and R260.

“52% of my monthly allowance,”

This is the story of getting around Komati during October, Transport Month.

The choice at the rank

At the rank, the conversation often comes back to one thing, the taxi fare.

The Avanza fare is too expensive, residents say.

Because of this, some residents choose to leave the Avanza and take Tilly’s bus instead.

Tilly’s is cheaper.

But it often comes with a different cost: time.

Tilly’s bus operates according to a set schedule. It leaves at a specific time and returns at a specific time.

You cannot always depend on it if you are rushing to an interview, going to a clinic appointment, or knocking off late from work.

The Avanza is expensive, but the Avanza is there.

Tilly’s is cheaper, but Tilly’s will not wait for you.

The man who wakes at 4AM

Tshiamo drives the Avanza that many passengers complain about.

He wakes up at 04:00 every morning.

-taxi driver, Tshiamo

“I wake up at four. Prepare from four to five. And then I leave my house at five,”

At 05am, Komati looks different.

The sunrise shines through the mist, while the lights give the area an almost industrial feel.

Even at that early hour, there are signs of industrial activity.

But for Tshiamo, the early morning is also familiar.

Komati is a small community, and he knows it well.

He recognizes some passengers by name and others simply by face.

“Considering that our area is a really small, it’s easy for someone to know. This person comes from this house. So it’s a general definition of a small community.”

Because he spends so much time driving the same route, Tshiamo is familiar with the concerns of passengers.

The price of the fare is one of the complaints he hears most often.

“People will see the prices are expensive. We understand because everything is going up except for wages. But they do not take into account that there are maintenance costs for the car,”

For Tshiamo, there is more to the fare than what passengers pay for the trip.

There are also the costs of keeping the vehicle on the road.

“I need to maintain the car seriously. I have to consider tyres getting worn and torn. I need to consider punctures. I need to consider breakdowns. Maybe a terminal could lose, my car switches off in the middle of the road,”

His day starts in the early hours of the morning and often stretches into the night, with him spending most of it behind the wheel.

But how much does he actually take home?

“Usually, at the end of the day, I take home roughly R250, because I had to eat. I had to pocket and stuff like that,”

But even that amount is not guaranteed.

The mornings are usually busy, but the return trips are not always as full.

“Sometimes I will have people in the AMs and then when it is time to come back, I can have maybe three, two, no people in the car.”

On a good day, he can make up to a thousand rand.

On a bad day, it can be far less.

After dark, the options become fewer

For Noxolo, who doesn’t work, there is another concern: what happens after a certain time?

“Our transport system is limited, so after a certain time, there is no transport available to or from Middelburg or Witbank, which could be a disadvantage,”

She says travelling as a woman after dark feels mostly safe, although she sometimes has to travel with passengers who are overly drunk.

But the limited options at night still create uncertainty.

Taxis can take longer than expected to depart, and there is no guarantee that transport will be available at night.

The real cost

While transport Month is about the daily commute, getting people to work, to appointments, to shops and back home.

In Komati, that daily commute comes at a cost.

For a young person looking for work, the cost of getting to Middelburg can eat up 52% of their monthly allowance, money they need just to get around and search for opportunities.

For the driver who wakes up at 4am to make that journey possible, it means fuel, tyres, breakdowns and a full day behind the wheel, with roughly R250 in take-home income.

And for the worker, it can mean making a choice every morning at the rank:

Do I pay R130 for the Avanza because it is available, or do I take the cheaper Tilly’s bus and work around its timetable?

For many residents, that is the cost of leaving Komati in search of opportunities.