La Gare’s Loss is Kality’s Gain

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

Hadra Ahmed

12 July 2011

Wednesday, June 22, 2011, was the worst day for businesses around La Gare on Ras Mekonen Street because the bus terminal for buses and minibuses that transported passengers on the Addis Abeba to Dire Dawa route, moved to the Akaki Kality District on Sierra Leone Street(Debre Zeit Road).

La Gare, a place known for its hustle and bustle is no longer the way it used to be. The area used to be well recognised for its marketplace. Now, there are only five fruit shops, three small shops, two coffee and tea street vendors, and the one and only tyre repair with no potential customers in sight.

Kedir Asma, 21, is a small shop owner who has plied his trade there for the past seven years. He now spends his days brooding except for the intermittent excitement when a pedestrian comes and enquires about an item which is now on sale after the relocation of the bus terminal. He is tired of just sitting there waiting for a miracle to happen; all he wants is to sell his socks, second-hand shoes, belts and other bits and pieces he has with him.

“I used to sell almost 10 pairs of socks a day for 10 Br each, but now it is rare to be approached by a buyer. I hate going home each night for I have nothing to contribute to my family,” Kedir told Fortune.

La Gare, which now has many idle youth, has become a place to just sit and kill time. For some, the dark clouds that have dampened business activity are a sign to start looking for new job opportunities elsewhere. As sunset approaches the traders go home to get some rest, hoping for customers the next day, Others will begin their search to unlock the poor man’s door.

Neguse Baysa, the only tyre repair owner in the area for the past eight years is so frustrated, not only by the state of the market but also because of the new thieves that have cropped up. Losing a TV and other tools that he uses for his livelihood, he has now employed a guard to keep his shop safe while he has no service to give at all.

“I used to service four long haul buses and almost three short haul cars which gets me about 200 Br a day but now its been a week since I’ve had a visitor,” Neguse claimed.

“But more than anything else I would have loved it if the district or the police contributed in securing our environment,” Neguse pointed out.

The businesses open in the morning and close in the evening without making any profit or without even making a sale.

For Tsedale Zergaw, 26, a tea and coffee provider at one corner, life has become hard selling perishable items which will spoil if they if they are not sold daily. Tsedale used to bring 10 Ambashas and 10 loawes of bread and used to sell and finish before going home. The Ambashas that cost five Birr each and a birr for the bread with two thermos, one for tea and the other for coffee, would earn her just enough to feed her family which is now becoming so hard for her to continue.

“I mostly take it home and we eat it ourselves, because I only have two choices; we either have to eat it or let it spoil, and we lose both ways,” she told Fortune.

“There are almost 10,000 people who used to earn a living as conductors street vendors selling tea and other items

for passengers at La Gare. However, with the relocation of the bus terminal, it has become impossible for them to continue in their previous life. With the hope that rumours of the terminal becoming converted into a bus stop for public city buses, some had preferred to stay put and wait for the outcome, said Zelalem Getachew.

Zelalem co-owns a four square metre fruit shop together with Akmel Reshad and Nesru Awol. The trio are still struggling to support their families. They pity their not so fortunate neighbours, and the people they have known for almost three years.

They agree that the bus station used to be good for business not only for those nearby, but also for the surrounding areas stretching all the way to the Commercial College.

“If the situation continues like this we are afraid of what we are going to do when we have to start paying taxes come August 8, 2011,” seems to be the collective sentiment.

A favourable twist of fate, however, seems to have taken place at the Akaki Kality District where business seems to be thriving after two years of anticipation of the eventual relocation of the bus terminal from La Gare.

A small café owner serving her customers with dishes of shiro, firfir, and other dishes, Abay Dawit now sells almost 20 to 25 injeras a day. Serving shiro for lunch and firfir for breakfast, she earns 210 Br a day.

“I have waited for almost three years, praying for this day to come,” Abay said.

“I am in fact planning to change my direction towards another business after I study what this place requires most,” she confided.

Sharing Abay’s sentiment, Fatuma Kedir, 33, and a shop owner, agrees that the terminal has provided a lot for their lives already.

“I am so happy, that I do not even know how to explain the changes I am seeing in my business. But I am afraid of the rumours that we are hearing that we would be evicted from here,” she said.

Even with the number of businesses present around the terminal, there are more vacant spaces waiting to be occupied by people.

“The district is working on the request it receives, and soon enough this place will be a proper bus station,” Addis Kebede, an Isuzu driver and a coordinator at the new bus terminal told Fortune.

“The terminal is already providing a lot for families here,” he said.

The bus terminal has the capacity to house a minimum of 200 buses. It is designed to have a larger capacity than that of the old terminal (known as Autobus Terra) located on the Fitawrari Habte Giorgis Street in the Addis Ketema District.

With six coordinators available to direct the turns of the buses, the new Akaki terminal looks well organised and capable of giving proper services. While buses to Nazareth, Debre Zeit (Bishoftu), Assela, Bekoji leave at dusk, Zeway, Meki, Nazaret, and the Debre Zeit buses will arrive in the afternoon.

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