Spare Tyres

Our taxi driver from Lilongwe airport manoeuvred between two cars which had been stopped by police on either side of the road. Curious, I asked him what was being checked.

“Licences. And these (tapping on his car’s registration sticker). And spare tyres.”

“Spare tyres?” I questioned

“Yes, if you do not have one, you get arrested. They say if you don’t like someone, you should steal his spare tyre”

Interesting, that people can ride on the back of trucks, our taxi didn’t have functional seatbelts, and many cars have massive cracks across their windscreens, and a spare tyre is the thing that could get you arrested.

That said, our driver from our accommodation in Lilongwe to the bus station carefully arranged my friend and I to keep all the weight off his completely flat tyre. Perhaps he was saving his spare for a police check.