Exploring conflicts among commuter omnibus crew and touts: Case of seke’s selected bus ranks

Abstract

In Zimbabwe, the greater part of urban commuter transportation is in the hands of privately-owned omnibus crew and touts, who are popular for immorality and violence. The study seeking to establish the crew and touts’ most conflicts, their causes and how they resolve them was guided by an implicit theory that disenchanted and under-employed people are more likely to engage in violence since their opportunity cost of doing so is low and the Politeness theory by Brown and Levinson. Data were collected from 24 participants randomly sampled from three omnibus ranks in Seke; Makoni, C-K Junction and Unit L. The qualitative study following an exploratory enquiry used informal interviews and mobile observations before analysing data using content analysis approach.