“Sisi Front Seat”

Every taxi ride has one thing in common, and that is passengers having to sort out the taxi fare amongst themselves row by row until it reaches the driver. When you sit in the front seat you will be temporarily “employed” as the drivers “calculator” and make sure that he gets his money in full. The unfair thing is that you don’t get paid and you still have to pay your taxi fare in full, now that sucks. The job has its own weaknesses though, especially if you miscalculate, people want their change and they want it in full.

Imagine after giving the driver his money you hear someone say, “Ngicela ichange yami” and there’s no money left, you look back and you see the person looking at you like you just stole their soul! Your heart palpitates because you are flat broke and no one is willing to say “oh I got extra change”. So now what must happen? Because the driver is turning a blind eye since he got his money, it becomes a moment of a two minute nyana prayer.

I try to escape the front seat because I CANNOT count, I am mathematically absent, and now how can I handle the whole taxi’s money? I CAN’T!  That’s why the three worst words that a taxi marshal can say to me is “sisi front seat”, and he doesn’t want to hear a story so I sit there and mess up.

A few days ago I came across a miracle, the taxi ancestors are with us, there is a new app…wait for it…it’s the Phambili app ( http://www.phambiliapp.co.za/ ) and it’s an app that calculates the taxi fare for you. This app was developed by Thokozani Memela to help people like me to not be weary of ukuhlala phambili. I accessed the web based app and it’s so accurate and on point now I don't mind the front seat, so if you are like me do yourself a favour and check it out. If you do not have data take the drivers phone and access it, do it at your own discretion though lol! No more four, four masihlalisane, enjoy…