Kidnap and robbery couldn’t stop this female truck driver

Long distance driving is a career that is dominated by men in many parts of Africa, including Tanzania. It is considered a no-go territory for women.

The general inclination is that most women would rather settle for less-demanding careers, while others favour their natural roles as mothers looking after children in the household.

However, Stella Aladini, 49, has defied that odd. She’s chosen a profession shunned by most women. She’s a truck and heavy commercial vehicles driver, a career which spans over two decades. She currently works for ZH Poppe Ltd based in Dar es Salaam.

Aladini didn’t just stumble unto this career. Ever since her childhood, she had a passion for driving. Eventually it became her dream career, one which she ended up achieving. Being a truck driver has seen her travel to different destinations.

She considers her career to be just like any other profession, such as banking, which employs a number of skilled workers.

“I started my driving profession in 1998, as a truck driver. I used to transport bags of cement from Songwe to Iringa. However, I didn’t work for the company for long before deciding to go back to driving school to upgrade my driving knowledge,” the married mother of two children says.

After completing her studies, Aladini was hired by another company as a passenger bus driver –she served the company for ten years. She later quit the job and embarked on working in logistics services.

Fear for such a job that’s considered to be a man’s domain might perhaps not be far-fetched. Ms Aladini narrates that in her line of work, she has been subjected to kidnapping, robbery and torture several times by Congolese rebels.

“The first time I was kidnapped was in Igunga while I was driving a passenger bus from Kigoma. The road was blocked by heavy stones, and then there was a small vehicle alongside the road carrying armed robbers,” she recalls of the gruesome experience.

“Two armed men emerged from the vehicle and started firing arms at the bus. I was shot on my left leg and right arm,” she further narrates.

Aladini and the passengers in the bus were robbed. The robbers then disappeared in the forest. Security guards did not manage to detain or trace the whereabouts of the gang because they arrived at the crime scene late. “I was taken to the hospital following the injuries I sustained during the shooting,” Aladini says.

That was not the only horrific encounter in her career that Aladini wanted to share with Woman; she kept narrating on other kidnapping incidents she encountered while on duty.

“I was kidnapped for the second time in Bukoba while I was driving another passenger bus, operating between Bukoba and Arusha. But this time, we were at least seven drivers from different bus companies, we were robbed and tortured,” she says.

That wasn’t the end of it, just last year, Aladini was kidnapped and robbed in DRC by Congolese rebels while she was transporting goods from Dar es Salaam to Lubumbashi.

“There is no security at all, Congolese rebels normally break into Tanzanian trucks and rob drivers’ mobile phones, clothes and money. They sometimes kidnap drivers and demand enormous sums of money from the trucks’ owners as release charges/ransom,” she explains, further airing her frustration; “Police officers do nothing to combat the unlawful acts against Tanzanian truck drivers, they feel void of responsibility for what is happening to us.”

Despite all these challenges, Ms Aladini has never once withered on pursuing her career, stating that the challenges she faces are not alien to her job, they are just like other challenges. “I am not giving up, this is what I live for and I must be strong despite the adversities,” she affirms.

In the 20 years she’s worked as a heavy commercial vehicles driver, Aladini has managed to take her two children to school, build a house and buy plots, plus owning her own car.

Crossing Tanzanian borders to neighboring countries like Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Malawi has never been an easy task for the driver; she sometimes spends up to ten days in the long traffic jams waiting to cross the border.

“Due to long traffic jams, the area is always overwhelmed with many vehicles operating between Tanzania and DRC,” she says.

At high risk

Ms Aladini, tall, black and slim admits that she is among majority of truck drivers who put their lives at high risk of encountering epidemics such as cholera and Malaria due to lack of toilets and water supply infrastructure at the country’s borders to neighboring countries.

“We have to buy bottles of water from the cities which we use during the long wait to cross the borders,” she says.

In many countries including Tanzania, men are considered the best drivers and predominant in driving specialisation compared to their female counterparts.

However, Ms Aladini contradicts that assertion. “It is not true,” she says, continuing, “To me, women are better drivers than men. Female drivers are rarely involved in road traffic accidents because we adhere to road traffic signs and rules.”

In Tanzania and the rest of the world, road traffic accidents claim lives of many people, a situation which remains dire.

“I have never caused any road accident since I started my career as a driver, confidence and determination are top secrets behind my success,” Aladini says.

Due to the false mindset of the public and the nature of the driving profession, majority of women in Tanzania are discouraged from practicing the profession, although Ms Aladini allays fears and calls on more women who have passion for driving to follow their dreams and join her in the profession.

“It is just a normal job; anyone can do it, both men and women. I therefore urge my fellow women who are interested in driving trucks or heavy commercial vehicles to accomplish their ambitions just like I did,” she encourages.

Mr Mukuya Lukosi, 40, Ms Aladini’s co-worker at the company, heaps praise on her for becoming a long-distance truck driver and describes her as ‘courageous’.

“Majority of women are not courageous enough to practice long-distance driving profession. To me, Aladini is a good example, and many can learn from her,” he says.

Mr Lukosi further dismisses the mindset of the public about men being predominant in driving profession, stating that even women can be good drivers if they are empowered and supported.

“A good driver is one who practises high level of confidence and adheres to relevant road safety rules, it has nothing to do with gender,” says Mr Shaban Mdemu, a chairman of Tanzania Drivers Workers Union (TDWU).

He further asserts that his office has registered a number of female heavy commercial vehicles and truck drivers who are operating between Tanzania and neighboring countries like the DRC, Zambia and Burundi, to mention a few.

“Their road traffic accident records are excellent. They just need to be empowered and trusted,” he says.

He also establishes that many female drivers have been employed to work for other famous and big companies such as Dar es Salaam Rapid Transport Ltd (DART), among others.

Furthermore, Mr Mdemu encourages more women to join the driving specialisation, revealing that the number of registered female drivers is small compared to the number of male drivers.

“We have registered only 12 female drivers out of 600 drivers, the rest are male,” he says.

Backing up his boss’ arguments, TDWU’s secretary general Mr Abdalah Lubala, calls upon government authorities to formalise the driving profession with a view to attract many women to join the profession.

“Nature of the driving profession is not friendly to women hence it discourages majority of them from actively practicing the profession,” he says.

“If formalised, women might be encouraged to try it out, hence leading to growth in number of women practicing the profession,” he adds. He reveals that majority of Tanzanian employed bus and truck drivers earn little pay, hence fail to survive, considering the high cost of living. The situation is even more alarming for female drivers who have a lot of basic needs requiring to be taken care of.

“Truck drivers earn at least Sh450, 000 as end-month salary to transport cargo from Tanzania to Zambia. Such an amount is very small,” he says.

Commenting on government’s role to empower women to practise driving profession, Mr Lubala urges the government to generate driving experts (trainers) who will build capacity of women drivers in the country.