Cruising Giza’s socioeconomic slums gives an insight into the politics of the area
Tuk tuk? Tuk tuk? Tuk tuk ya pasha?” is the first thing you hear once you cross the rail tracks separating Ard El-lewa slum from Mohandessin in Giza. Masive numbers of this vehicle randomly run around in different directions, picking up passengers wanting to return home to one of the slum’s narrow streets.
Magdy seems to be the youngest among the many drivers who do not have numberplates on their vehicles. He agrees to provide a random tour of the area for LE5, and we allow him to pick up other passengers on the way as well.
He charges them around LE1 depending on the distance, while the government has recently announced a fixed fare of only 50 piasters. People don’t seem to mind.
Probably their satisfaction is driven by the fact that they finally have something to carry them home as no other vehicles can move among such streets. An aging woman slowly disembarking prays for Magdy and says, “May God enlighten your way, my son”
A survey conducted by the Egyptian cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) says 59% of public transport users ride tuk tuks, 76% of tuk tuk users are satisfied with the services provided, and 44% believe tuk tuk services are improving. However 17% complained about underage drivers and 13% believe that tuk tuks are an unsafe means of transport.
Samah Adel, one of Magdy’s clients, seems to be satisfied with the service as it saves her time going to work. “In the past I used to walk for almost an hour sometimes in mud from sewerage water just to reach the main street to catch the bus. Now, it’s only minutes.”
Asked about the young drivers’ misbehavior, she replies that she does not see this as aproblem. “Good and bad people are everywhere. Yes there are criminals driving tuk tuks, but we know them from how they look. This young man [Magdy] is very polite, I remember his face,” she says.
A Stigmatized Business
The local media is somewhat suspicious of the growing phenomenon and has not skipped a chance to magnify the criminality attached to it through apparent social criticism. Love in the time of colla [a local drug], is the name of a short film by Ibrahim Abla portraying the life of a young tuk tuk driver who is obsessed with drugs and sex.
This socially defective image has been fed by real news in the past couple of years, especially in 2009 when some shocking crimes occurred. One example was a mother and baby who were kidnapped in a tuk tuk. The mother was raped over three days, while the baby was killed after being thrown into the drainage system because the perpetrators could not stand his crying. The two criminals were sentenced to death by hanging.
Another tuk tuk driver was accused of murdering a sheep merchant when a fight ensued between the two over who passed first in a traffic jam in one of Giza’s slum. The trial is still underway.
Magdy, who hides his eyes most of the time with a pair of huge sunglasses, believes that people who carry out such crimes are a very small minority that gives him and other tuk tuk drivers a bad reputation. “We’re very simple people and I’m helping my family with the money I make. My sister goes to university and needs a lot of money to pay tuition and buy the books forced on students by the professors. She’s also engaged and I intend to help her marry, because I’m the man of the house as my father is dead. What else can I do?” he asks.
However, while he claims his straight behavior, it is obvious that he smokes hash, which is why he likes to hide his eyes most of the time. “I never take any pills or drugs like others, I only smoke hash like I’m sure [you] do, just to pass the day and be nice to passengers,” he comments.
Media concerns and traffic chaos caused by the tuk tuks and their drivers have prompted the government to respond impulsively. They sometimes run arrest and confiscation campaigns in Cairo’s and Giza’s streets, impounding hundreds of vehicles in the traffic department’s yards.
Owners who totally depend on their tuk tuks to support their families are not content to take such measures lying down, especially when they have monthly installments due.
Last September, about 280 drivers with their families and children staged a sit-in in front of the Cairo Governorate building and did not leave until they were returned their tuk tuks. A very similar action also occurred in Giza, and again the government bowed to popular pressure.
There’s no Better Business
2007 was known as the year of the tuk tuk. Huge numbers of the vehicles were imported after demand significantly increased. With the absence of official regulation of such activity, and weak or almost inexistent legal follow up by governorate officials who closed their eyes to the market’s developments, the business rapidly grew and flourished.
According to newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, official reports state that the number of tuk tuks in Egypt reached 650,000 by the end of 2008. More recent official information released by the Ministry of Finance says the country imported in 2009 alone 210,000 tuk tuks, which means there are currently substantially more than 860,000 tuk tuks driving around Egyptians urban and rural slums.
Al Wataneya Logistics CEO Ahmed El-Hindy is one of the importers involved, however he does not participate in the retail of tuk tuks, “Wholesalers from mainky Cairo, Giza and Mahalla ask me to import tuk tuks in order to distribute them on credit to both individuals and other smaller dealers,” El-Hindy says.
He refuses to talk about numbers, but he says large amounts of the vehicle arrive at Damietta Port where he operates, and other ports as well, in shipments from mainly India and Malaysia.
“It is a very simple and profitable business, where all you have to care about are the engine specifications, which should have separate oil and fuel circuits. This is the only condition the Ministry of Environment has recently set,” says El-Hindy.
Magdy, our tour guide in Ard Ellewa, does not own the tuk tuk he drives. He pays LE30 a day (eight hours) to its owner, who bought a couple of tuk tuks on credit. “Sometimes I make up to LE60 or LE70 a day, and sometimes I don’t even reach LE20. But I really like my work as it’s easy and fun,” says Magdy, who appears to be just a couple of years short of 21.
“We [drivers] help each other here, since most of us don’t have license. We text or call whenever there is a traffic campaign. But even if they take it from me, the owner always finds a way to get it back. There’s a price for everything in Egypt, and this is how life here goes on,” he adds.
According to other drivers, each tuk tuk costs between LE20,000 and LE30,000 in total, with a down payment of about LE5000 to LE10,000 plus installments of about LE500 every month, paid to dealers.
The Tuk Tuk Debate
The tuk tuk managed to become a top political topic in the parliament and concerned ministries. President Hosni Mubarak, in his presidential decree 51/2009 concerning customs changes on imports, ordered a decrease of customs from 20% to 10% on tuk tuks in order to create income and new jobs for the poor.
Mubarak’s decision was considered a strong signal to the government to work harder and faster to solve the tuk tuk legal and social chaos, which has featured too often in the news.
In February, Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros-Ghali finalized a decision to cover tuk tuk drivers under the insurance umbrella for retirement, disability and death.
The ministry’s press release says that each driver will have to pay 10% of his monthly minimum wage (LE112), ie LE11.20 a month. This amount will increase by 10% every year in order to ensure adequate pensions.
Giza’s governor Saeed Abdel Aziz responded quickly with a campaign to legalise the tuk tuk situation is his governorate, which ended at the beginning of March with 5000 vehicles being licensed for one year only, renewable, and only to owners born in Giza.
According to the new regulations, there are certain routes within certain areas, and any who break the rules will be punished. Each tuk tuk should be painted in dark blue, and bear a sticker specifying the name of the route and the 50 piaster fixed fare. A list of prohibitions includes using other external or internal stickers or markings, speakers, horns or music players.
Maybe such regulations in theory soften the tuk tuk headache. But in practice it seems that the legalised vehicles represent only a tiny portion of the tuk tuk fleets cruising Giza, doing nothing but the opposite of what is proscribed on the above list.
It’s a single drop in a chaotic sea of traffic jams, social misbehavior and trade absurdity that is still catching news headlines. And it remains a rich topic for the media, whose enthusiasm for the subject has resulted in the production of a whole new sitcom called Tuk.
This article is originally published by Al Borsa