By Fanuel Chinowaita
Chimanimani, 26 April 2026— A volatile scheduling dispute between bus operators Trip Trans and Inter Africa lurched closer to catastrophe last week after a local headman’s attempt to avert a deadly road race was met with flat rejection by a driver who declared he “only takes orders from above.”
The clash centres on the Mutare–Gurwaisimba route, where Trip Trans has run the prime 4am departure unchallenged for a decade. The entry of Inter Africa — deploying four buses in Chimanimani and up to three in Gurwaisimba — has ignited a turf war, with the newcomer refusing to surrender the lucrative first-morning slot.
Headman Hlabiso stepped in and proposed that Inter Africa shift its first trip to 3am, hoping to stop buses jostling for passengers on the region’s notoriously narrow, winding and poorly maintained roads. An Inter Africa driver, however, dismissed the traditional leader’s directive, insisting he answered only to company management. The rebuff has left residents terrified.
“The terrain is not good for them to be fighting their corporate battles here. People will be killed. If they have issues, they should go and settle them in Harare,” a Gurwaisimba resident said.
As tensions simmers, Sources indicate that a group of five workers — drivers Franco and Mutongi, and conductors Tinashe, Givy and Tino — were previously employed by Trip Trans, where they were allegedly dismissed on grounds of forgery, before later joining Inter Africa. It remains unclear whether the current timetable confrontation is purely a fight for passengers or carries the weight of that prior employment grievance.
Adding another layer, community sources maintain that the scheduling war is a proxy for an unresolved personal conflict between an individual identified as Mukumba, linked to Inter Africa, and the proprietors of Trip Trans. Residents have pleaded with both parties to settle their differences in a boardroom, not on the perilous mountain passes of Chimanimani.
Efforts to get coments from the management of both Trip Trans and Inter Africa were fruitless.