5 arrested, Manzini Bus Rank comes to standstill
MANZINI – Commuters were stranded for about two and half hours at the Manzini Bus Rank yesterday afternoon.
The Manzini bus terminus came to a standstill, according to some public transport workers, subsequent to the arrest of five of their colleagues. This resulted in the public transport workers parking their vehicles and calling an impromptu meeting, which was to deal with the issue.
According to some of the public transport workers, five of their colleagues were arrested after they assaulted a person for constantly offloading passengers in vehicles travelling along the Manzini-Lomahasha route.
Challenge
The public transport workers said there had been an ongoing challenge wherein a seven-seater vehicle would come into the bus rank and park afar from the public service vehicles servicing the Manzini-Lomahasha route.
The sources said in one of the days, the seven-seater vehicle drove into the bus rank with its driver in the company of a female acquaintance. They claimed that the female alighted from the vehicle and went to a kombi which was loading passengers travelling towards Lomahasha.
This, they said, resulted in some of the public transport workers asking the female why she was requesting people to alight from the public service vehicle to board the seven-seater vehicle.
The sources claimed that this issue resulted in manhandling and assaulting of the seven-seater vehicle driver. Thereafter, they claimed that on Monday evening, members of the para-military wing of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS), the Operational Support Services Unit (OSSU), apprehended five public transport workers.
They said they did not have a challenge with this and hoped that their colleagues would be presented in court where they would either get bail or pay a fine.
However, they said this did not happen and they waited for them until they decided to park the public service vehicles. The public transport workers claimed that they had a meeting with the Swaziland Local Transport Association (SLTA) and the police but were not satisfied with their responses.
“If it means that we don’t work tomorrow, we shall do so until our colleagues are released,” some of them said.
The public transport workers said they had not stopped working because of the proposed shutdown on November 15, 2022; but they were doing so because their colleagues were supposedly being treated unfairly.
The public transport workers said their action was meant to see that their colleagues were released. Also, Eswatini Kombi and Buses Workers Allied Union (EKABAWU) founding member, Muzi Nhleko, confirmed that five public transport workers were arrested.
Among the five, Nhleko said was the President of EKABAWU, Mxolisi Fakudze. He said the arrest was caused by a challenge that was being experienced by their members servicing the
Manzini-Lomahasha route.
He said they had reported the issue to the Manzini Traffic Department several times. He said they had also engaged the owner of the seven-seater vehicle to stop offloading passengers from vehicles and ferrying them to Lomahasha.
Passengers
Nhleko said later on in the day, at around 4:30pm, the public service vehicles started transporting passengers to their various destinations. He said at first, they used the entrance to the bus rank – Ngwane Street - as an exit route.
This is because the exit of the bus rank was blocked with stones and garbage bags by some public transport workers. They also held a meeting at the no-man’s land. Nhleko said another meeting would be held today, which would determine what happens next.
Deputy Police Information and Communications Officer Inspector Nosipho Mnguni said only one person was charged by the police and arrested. She said the matter was in the courts and they were the ones to decide on its outcome.