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- Golden Arrow Bus Service has warned of “anarchy” in the Western Cape public transport sector, as buses operate in a “war zone”.
- A bus driver has died and 13 buses have been set on fire this year.
- Other transport companies had chosen to pay protection fees to a taxi association to protect their buses.
Cape Town’s Golden Arrow Bus Service (GABS) warned of “anarchy” in the Western Cape public transport sector, as buses operate in a “war zone”.
A bus driver was killed and 13 buses were set on fire this year; and more than 200 of the company’s buses are stoned each month.
“At least say something about it. We feel very lonely,” GABS executive director Francois Meyer appealed to the Western Cape legislature’s public transportation committee, to which he was briefing.
Meyer said the drivers have post-traumatic stress disorder and were scared when they showed up for work amid relentless attacks and a seemingly slow intelligence sharing by police.
He added that it was so bad that other public transport operators were paying protection fees to taxi associations.
The most recent was the burning of buses in Khayelitsha in a bid for toilets and running water by people who have occupied plots in the area.
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Meyer said it emerged that police knew something was happening, but did not warn GABS.
Apparently, they saw the buses being seized and set on fire, and the drivers’ radios were seized so that they could not warn their control room to divert other buses.
He added that the trauma to the students caught up in the Khayelitsha protest would have been immense as they sat on diverted buses urgently to find safe routes to drop off for their exams.
Things have gotten so bad that bus drivers have the option of wearing a bulletproof vest to work. Drivers and passengers are assaulted so frequently that the city of Cape Town also sent special officers on board to travel with passengers to assist if necessary.
This led to a decrease in thefts of drivers and passengers, but when the agents were transferred to another location, the attacks began to increase steadily again.
“Stones, bricks, half a brick, anything [is] thrown at bus drivers and the buses themselves, “Meyer said.
The company deals with between six and eight armed robberies on its buses per week, in which thieves steal cash from drivers and then move around the bus stealing wallets and cell phones from passengers.
The drivers’ cabs used to be provided with bulletproof glass, but this exceeded the maximum weight allowed for the front of the bus, and it was also difficult for a driver to quickly get out of the cabin if the bus was on fire, so they withdrew. .
Drivers had asked for the stone shield to be removed from the bus windows because it was affecting their ability to see the road properly.
He said the conditions on the road while driving were also extreme, as taxi drivers did not follow the rules of the road.
PHOTOS | Protesters set fire to three Golden Arrow buses on the N2 in Cape Town
The MyCiTi bus service to Khayelitsha has already stopped.
“To us, it appears that the government is largely ignorant of the fact that we have to operate its contract in war zone conditions,” Meyer added.
The Western Cape Province Department of Transportation contracts with GABS to provide subsidized transportation to passengers on some 250,000 daily trips.
He said the company consistently reinvested the money in scholarships and paid more than R300 million in taxes last year, in addition to the social programs it supports.
Meyer added that 2,500 drivers were supporting up to 14,000 people with their wages.
The majority shareholder of the company is the Union of Garment and Textile Workers of SA through Hosken Consolidated Investment, and he said he could not understand how a company that benefited the communities in which it worked could be attacked.
Although you have insurance, you only receive the value of the bus when you bought it. So if a 10-year-old bus catches fire, they only get R500,000 out of the R2.3 million it now costs to buy a new bus. You expect your insurance premiums to increase due to the attacks.
Meyer said the city of Cape Town helped with onboard surveillance, which reduced crime on buses, but the unit had to be deployed elsewhere and thefts have increased again.
He added that other transport companies had chosen to pay protection fees to a taxi association to protect their buses.
Meyer said there was no evidence that taxis were behind the attacks, but there were cases of intimidation in that area.
“Decision makers: they listen and listen, but they have never experienced it the way we do every day. It is shocking.”
The city’s community security MMC, JP Smith, said there was a constant attack on infrastructure and public transportation underway, including MyCiTi, and blamed a lack of criminal justice consequences for the continued attacks.
Meanwhile, Transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela said in a statement after two shootings near taxi ranks in Cape Town on Monday and Tuesday, there were increasing reports of extortion by criminal elements allegedly aligned with Cata and Codeta.
“Authorities have been inundated with complaints from staff and student transport operators, as well as private companies, that their vehicles are stopped at ‘barricades’ set up by uniformed taxi industry ‘patrols’ in marked vehicles , which impose ‘fines’ or’ release ‘fees’ after redirecting vehicles to the ranks they control, “a statement said.
A meeting of various agencies was planned to discuss the taxi shootings and the extortion allegations.
