Marijke Overeen and Dian van Unen

The Bicycle in Zimbabwe

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Who needs bicycles? What are they used for?

There is no general survey about which group is using what means of transport in Zimbabwe. Consequently, there is no systematic picture of the various transport needs, possibilities and problems. The Ministry of Roads and Traffic recently begun such a survey, the results of which will be available around June 1984.

We were given figures on the present market for bicycles by the manager of the Central African Cycle Industries (CACI).

The estimated annual demand for new bicycles in Zimbabwe is 4 to every 1000 inhabitants which adds up to about 24.000 bicycles a year. This means that the main whole-saler in Harare sells about 200 bikes a year, an average shop in Gweru about 6 a month and a general store in the rural areas sells about 2 a month.

In general 3 wheel delivery-cycles and the two types of carrier-bicycles are bought and used in urban areas. The sales figures for the 3 wheel delivery-cycles are 250 a year for the whole of Zimbabwe. The number of carrier-bicycles sold annually is unknown to us.

We can only give our impression gained during our travels, of the type of people who use bicycles and of the purposes for which they are used.

Many urban workers use ordinary bicycles to commute between their homes and their work in the industrial areas, situated between the townships and the city.

Specific groups like policemen, security- and watchmen use their bikes to go to work and on the job.

Some domestic workers in the suburbs use bikes to run errands for their employers. The suburban school children go to school by bicycle. Consequently bicycle paths follow this pattern: along the mainroads and through the suburbs. They are subordinated to motorised traffic. Safe crossing places are few and far between. Cyclists are forced to take roundabout routes to reach their destinations.

Dairy-board employees: ice cream- and milksellers use a delivery-cycle manufactured by their own company.

Companies and shops use the delivery-cycles manufactured by CACI. They are used for delivering goods to customers, as are the two types of carrier bicycles.

Small vegetables- and fruit vendors sell their wares on the street with a carriagecycle.

Bicycle trailers are used by companies for deliveries, for example Lobels bakery employees use trailers. We also noticed some trailers behind motorcycles.

An increasing number of home-made push 'n pull carts are used for carrying heavy loads to and from bus-stations, markets and supermarkets.

In the rural areas transport goes on dust-roads and small paths. There are no special provisions for bicycle transport.

Loads are often transported by scotchcarts, pulled by oxen or donkeys. Of course this is only the case when people can afford such a cart. Our impression is that quite a large number of farmers can afford a scotchcart for carrying tools, crops, animalfeeds, fertilizer, bags of mealie meal etc. Teachers and policemen are the two professions earning enough to be able to afford a bicycle to get to work. Others who use bicycles for their work are village Health Workers, Women's Advisers and Community Development Workers. In 1983 UNICEF donated hundreds of bicycles through various ministries to make such workers in rural areas more mobile. (1)

Push 'n pull carts and the services of their owners are commonly used at many (country) busstations.

We expect the transport-survey being carried out to reveal gaps in busservices network in the communna lands and around the minor population centres. It is part of the roadsystem administered by the District Administration.

Any improvement of the lives of the rural population depends on transport to markets, schools, medical services, district centres etc. Lack of cheap transport limits the population's contribution to the gross domestic product. (2)

Inequality between commercial farmers and peasant farmers is widened by the domination of motorized transport and its roadsystem. The relatively short distances between the villages and district centres would seem to point to the use of the bicycle as the most efficient mode of transport, possibly supplemented by a trailer for heavier loads. However as long as a bicycle costs as much as two cows this prospect will remain a pipe dream. (3)

The spontaneous reaction to our ideas of many people we talked to was, to make disparaging remarks about bicycles, their use and everything else to do with them. Such remarks were often accompanied by comments that in the old days, some 30-40 years ago, before more business were introduced in the rural areas, bicycles were much more common. Now in the eighties, was the comment, people only want cars. The use of bicycles by groups like watchmen, policemen, delivery men and domestic workers does not do much to raise the prestige of cycling in people's eyes. The skills needed to maintain and repair. bicycles meet with the same scorn: "Anyone can repair a bike", or "Anyone who knows a bit about metalwork can be a cycle repairer". One wonders why so many bicycles are so badly maintained.