Ramaphosa ‘silent’ over attacks on coaches
THE long-distance coach industry has again called on President Cyril Ramaphosa, Police Minister Bheki Cele and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to respond to the “crisis of unprecedented levels of violence” in the industry.
Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira said: “There has not been a single word uttered by President Cyril Ramaphosa despite us having written to him pleading for urgent intervention, or the Minister of Police or Minister of Transport, about the ongoing attacks and intimidation directed at Intercape and the long-distance coach industry.”
This comes after a bus with mourners of Intercape bus driver Bangikhaya Machana, who was slain in Cape Town recently, was stopped on Friday morning by taxi operators who allegedly refused to let them proceed to his hometown of Dutywa, Eastern Cape, for his funeral.
Machana, 35, was shot outside the Intercape depot in Cape Town on April 25 and died in Tygerberg Hospital three days later.
According to Intercape, there have been more than 150 violent incidents in the long-distance coach industry in the last 13 months. Recently, there were Intercape buses that came under attack, all in Gauteng, on April 28 and 29, which left two people injured.
The attacks were mainly centred on key towns and routes in the Eastern Cape but there have also been attacks in the Cape metropole and Gauteng.
After Machana’s death, the company provided a coach to take more than 50 members of the Machana family and friends from Cape Town to his hometown of Dutywa for the funeral due to take place on Saturday.
Ferreira said: “On Friday morning, when our coach that was transporting the family members of Bangikhaya entered Dutywa, it was chased away by the taxi operators. The coach went to the local police station to try to offload the people there. The taxis followed and one of our drivers went inside the police station to get help. The police did not want to come out to help.”
Ferreira said hat the coach had to go to Mthatha because of “fears for the safety of family members”, but the mourners returned to Dutywa on Friday afternoon under police escort. “These taxi operators have absolutely no shame, stopping and preventing a grieving family from visiting their hometown to lay to rest a son, husband and father who was so cruelly taken from them,” he said.
The incident was the latest to have prompted renewed calls for Ramaphosa and the ministers of police and transport to respond to the crisis.
Ferreira questioned how local police could simply stand by and let “thugs” act as a law unto themselves and added that it was as if the government does not care or was afraid to act.
The SAPS National Joint Operational Intelligence Structure said it held a series of engagements with Intercape. “SAPS is hopeful the engagements will yield positive results,” said spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Netshiunda.
The Presidency could not be reached for comment.