On my way to the capital city Harare from my hood St Mary's, aboard a Zupco bound Trip Trans bus popular with its inscription "Senior Actor" above the bumper and the driver popular with passagers as "bus ra gunners solder" .
As the bus whizzed lacadezically to town , the heat felt delicious .
Opposite my seat sat a demunitive youngman fit as a fiddle . His head is bandaged , to which l suspect he might have been involved in accident . However ,as l relooked at him . He was a familiar face . I suddenly flicked my mind back .This is Zeze mumwe wevakomana . He is thief and probably lucky run out a few days ago and was beaten , l thought to myself.
"Eee makuruwani " , he said nodding at me in a clear sign that familiar faces have met . As usual l nodded back with a smile that l have been greated with respect from the boys in town as he was familiar , however not for the good things.
If you want cheaper gadgets , and electricals , get in touch with Zeze , ndovakomana pataundi , as they say it in our dirty dusty ghetto streets .
This is Zeze l knew him from the hood , some popularly call him Njube , some Zeze and some call him Sundowns for his love of South Africa's biggest football giant Memolady Sundowns. Moreso he usually wear the famous Sundowns yellow Jersey or the black and white striped Highlanders jersey .
Knowing him and his errands , l quickly blinked out from the hands of maphus and alerted myself .
Watching him trickingly with a sideview , Njube swang one leg easily over the other .He was holding a bobbed grey bottle drink which he sipped . "Makuruwani , take a sip " , he said handing the bottle drink to me . l profusely refused . " Thanks mukoma , its still early , toswera ta lock tikatadza kushanda " l said handing him back the bottle drink .
Seating on the same seat to Njube are two middle aged young woman , beautiful , class and elegant .
By my side is a fine woman , tall thin , blond , blue-eyed , with high cheek-bones .She whispered to me . " Do you know this guy in blue worksuit " l nodded in agreement.
Just like the famous evesdropper Mbuya Chekuche from my rural Buhera she whispered again , " atora phone ya that lady ari paside pake " . Passively , l replied to her , " just pretend as if you have not seen it imbavha idzi unobaiwa nebanga ukataura" l said to the lady whom from her expression , looked not happy and contend with how l had brushed aside her story.
As the bus reached the famous road block from Chitungwiza , "Delpot Boarder Post" , nicknamed from the strickness and thorough scrutiny of travel documents by security details manning the road block .
One of the ladies who was sharing the seat with Zeze , whom l discovered at that instance was a solder , was the first to stand up as she walk towards the door with rest of us going out for routine documentation check .
" phone yangu , aaa handisikuona phone yangu ," she said to her colleague in a high-toned voice .
Suddenly commotion ensued in the bus . The bus driver, who also happened to be a solder , jumped from his driver's seat and said ," munhu wese kana phone isina kubuda mucharowa zvekuti hamusati mamboona . Everyone out of the bus , leave all your bags and purses inside , outside lie down all of you ." he said .
As we made our way out of the bus , a gigantic dark skinned solder in a red barret spliffing his cigger , who happen to be part of the security details who were manning the Delpot road block said , " mukanyatsorohwa munoburitsa phone . You steal phone yemu solder " he said with a frightening hished voice.
Suddenly l knew that the beautiful young ladies and many of the passagers were actually security details . As we made our way out , Njube the class thief in front us did the unthinkable .
Infront of Njube was a tall thin fine looking gentleman well built in his
late thirties l presume , who was donning a blue worksuit inscribed , "Delta".
My seatmate , who had earlier told me about the phone whispered again to me for l had not seen anything , " your guy akanda phone mu side pocket ye that guy infront of him , did you notice ".
Shivering and preponderating on the impending thorough beating from the angry security details, l could not utter back a word, as we made our way out .
For the class Njube , two young girls had been watching him . He giggled and wrinkled his eyes ostensibly to silence the two beauties .Outside the bus , the security details searched everyone .
Life is incredibly unfair at times . The guy whom Zeze classically flinged the mobile phone was beaten and punished . As he was made to roll up and down . One of the two ladies who had seen how Zeze had trickly passed the phone unknowingly to the guy whom the phone was found with , stood up .
"Officer , im sorry , the guy you are beating is innocent . As you ordered us out of the bus a certain guy trickly dropped this phone in his pocket". Suddenly it became clear that a sizeable number of passengers have seen how the classy Njube had classically done his job.
"Ndeupi munhu wacho , " ordered the angry looking female solder whose phone had been stolen .As the girl looked around to point Zeze . The classical Njube had DISAPPEARED .
Lloyd Takawira is Freelance Writer, Blogger, Research Consultant . He can be contacted on +263771923115 / tllyoyd@gmail.com
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