Today Cosatu held a stayaway. This included taxi drivers. Usually when this happens I hang around main road Melville for a while, just to confirm there really aren't any of the buggers around, then I phone a friend and get them to work for me. This achieved I saunter on home and fire up the PC and percolator (in my case a kettle + Nescafe). Today though no-one can work for me, so I hang around main road Melville thinking: whatthefuck?!
There are one or two cars. They are few and far between. After seeing my girl off in a meter cab to Braamfontein I head on to Campus Square where I finally manage to catch a car into town. It's already like 9:30. I'm seriously late but what can I do? At least I'm on route, the bookstore can wait for a while.
One problem though, and this is a bitch but funny nonetheless. The taxi drops us all in town, at Bree, after telling us there are no taxis in town at all... anywhere. Now what? I peep inside Bree Rank. True's Bob... not a single car... I have never seen the rank looking so... clean.
So, here I am, in town, and stuck. Town is looking dead quiet y'all... not really the place you want to be hanging around if you can help it, so I decide to hightail it out of there. Problem is, to get out of town I need to find a meter cab... and it's going to cost me (turns out transport for today, to and from work, is going to set me back R300.00). Many cabs hang around Plein Street; it's a real trek. Joburg is looking decidedly Westernish - unnervingly silent as if a horde of bandits are about to arrive and shoot the place up. I begin walking and around the corner from Bree, at the Total garage, I run into about 100 taxis, deserted and parked in every available space, all minus drivers. These guys are apparently in Pretoria, Tshwane sorry, toyi toying against the rising price of power and fuel.
I find a cab along Plein. The driver quotes R120.00 and there's nothing I can do. Gotta pay the fare, fair or no.... It's 10 o'clock and I seem to be having one of those days. After getting out the taxi at Bedford I look down and my fly's open.
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LISENCE and REGISTRATION
- White Man Jumping
- A white taxi is a black taxi with at least one white guy in it. The taxi is not altogether white, yet neither is it now completely black. To JUMP: To alight from a taxi at an opportune moment. Not necessarily "After Robot" or "Short Left" but whenever and whereever the taxi has come to a temporary stop - at a redlight, in the middle of traffic, or for any other reason. To "Jump" denotes confidence, a casual or bohemian flair in one's use of the South African commuter taxi public transportation system.
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