Waiting but busy: Teaching school graduate, Chimuka Gondwe, takes up taxi business

MIKE MUGALA, Reports: WHILE some graduates are busy dropping applications looking for white-collar jobs, Chimuka Gondwe has taken a different route. 

Chimuka, a qualified primary school teacher from Mwinilunga, has become a taxi driver to support himself as he awaits deployment. 

When he graduated from Nkana College of Education recently, his mother gave him her vehicle. 

“I tried to apply for employment in private schools and I am still waiting for an opportunity, so my mother gave me her vehicle saying I cannot just sit at home. 

I bought into the idea and started ferrying people. Initially, I started by ferrying teachers who go to Nyang’ombe Primary School, which is 30 kilometres from Mwinilunga central business district,” he says.

He says he first started with selling honey within Mwinilunga district before he ventured into the taxi business. 

Chimuka says he later grew his customer options from the five teachers who give him K730 monthly to other people within town. 

“I start my day at 06:00 hours. First, I go to various picking points to get the teachers before I start off for Nyang’ombe at 06:20 hours. It takes 30 minutes for me to go to Nyang’ombe. When I get back, I park my vehicle at a taxi rank to chance other clients,” he says. 

Chimuka says each person pays between K25 to K30 to go to Nyang’ombe and other areas. He also ferries pupils who go to school in the afternoon. 

When it is 12:00 hours, he heads back to Nyang’ombe to pick up the teachers, who knock off between 13:00 hours and 13:30 hours, and drops them at their various stations at 14:00 hours before he goes back to the taxi rank. 

“Activity comes to a stop in Mwinilunga by 21:00 hours. Shops would have closed and most people would have stopped moving. That is the time I equally knock off to go home,” he said. 

Chimuka makes K500 on a good day. He uses K250 on fuel while he saves the rest. From his taxi and honey businesses, he has managed to save over K25,000, which he has paid towards the purchase of