“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…