A bus driver may have experienced his most embarrassing moment yet after he was thoroughly dealt with by the same passengers he was carrying.
File photo used only for illustrative purpose
The driver from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, was thoroughly assaulted and urinated on by two irate passengers on Thursday. Their reason was simply that the man refused to refund them their money after his car broke down before they had reached their destination, Zimbabwe News Online reports.
According to the driver, Mr Michael Ndlovu (22) who drives a white omnibus, number plate ADJ 0680, the passengers who were visibly drunk refused to wait for another bus like other passengers but demanded their money.
“From the moment that they boarded my bus I smelt trouble because they were very rowdy. They were singing songs full of obscenities. I told them to respect the other passengers and they threatened to beat me up. I decided to ignore them because I have come across such people before,’’ said Mr Ndlovu.
He said trouble began when his bus’s battery developed a problem when a passenger was disembarking in Nketa 6.
“When the passenger disembarked the kombi just switched off and efforts to revive it failed. Those two guys then demanded their money, I tried to reason with them to wait for another bus, but they did not want to hear what I was saying,’’ said Mr Ndlovu.
“When I refused to give them their money they started shoving and pushing me around. I retaliated with the aid of my conductor, James Moyo but they overpowered us. The other passengers did not even interfere, they just watched us being beaten up. James ran away when the fight got ugly and since it was now two against one they beat me up until I lay on the ground. One of them then urinated on me.’’
The sight of Mr Ndlovu being used as a urinary gave courage to some passengers who saved the driver from further humiliation by breaking up the one-sided fight.
The two rampaging passengers then ran away when they realised that the other passengers were about to turn on them.
“My clothes were soaked with urine which had a foul smell. I thank the passengers although I feel that if they had reacted quickly the situation could have been contained without me being urinated on. But I know those guys and I promise you, my friends and I are going to hunt them down. They urinated on me but I am going to do worse, I am going to urinate and then defecate on them,’’ said a visibly angry Mr Ndlovu.
He revealed that he had fired his conductor, with the backing of his employer, for disloyalty.
“He deserted me at a time when I needed him the most. At a time when we should stick together, he chose to be alone. I will not work with someone like that, so I told him to look for another kombi, in fact I have already replaced him,” said Mr Ndlovu.
James confirmed that he had been fired but denied that he had deserted Mr Ndlovu.
“I did not flee, I went to seek help, but by the time I got back the guys who beat us up had already gone. Michael thinks that I ran away but I don’t blame him because I could have reacted the same way. As far as I am concerned he never wanted to work with me because I was the first to be employed in this company. He only replaced Zenzo the former driver who went to South Africa last month,” he said.