Interrogating the Role of Touts in the Informal Road Passenger Transport Sector in Zimbabwe: Acase of Zesa Terminus in the City of Masvingo

The purpose of the study was to interrogate the role and significance of touts in the informal road passenger transport sector in Zimbabwe, with particular reference to the city of Masvingo. The study employed a qualitative research design and the participants were selected through purposive and convenience sampling techniques. Data collection was undertaken through unstructured interviews from a variety of sources which included touts, passengers; vehicle drivers, vehicle owners and law enforcement agents. The different sources of data facilitated triangulation thereby enhancing the validity of the results. The study concluded that the overarching role of touts was to facilitate effective service delivery through provision of third party logistics services ranging from facilitation of boarding, through assurance of passenger safety and security, to the provision of a customer focused transport service. The study also concluded that all major stakeholders relied on the touts in one way or another: vehicle drivers relied on the touts for effective canvassing for business, facilitation of timely loading of vehicles to full capacity and identifying alternative loading points whenever necessary; vehicle owners used the touts to monitor the performance of vehicle drivers and the hiring of vehicle drivers at short notice; passengers relied on the touts for orderly boarding of vehicles, secure stacking of luggage, channeling of complaints, and tracing of lost items; and the local authority officers used the touts as a conduit to broker bribery arrangements. The study further concluded that there was an element of harassment of prospective passengers by an insignificant minority within the touting fraternitywhich, however, gave rise to the general negative perception regarding the operations of touts. To address the unbecoming minority behaviour the study recommended that the touting fraternity should reduce the unwritten ground rules into a strict written code of conduct.