The Western Cape MEC of Mobility, Daylin Mitchell, has urged National Government to provide urgent feedback on how it will assist provinces to end the countless attacks on long-distance bus services.
This, after another Intercape bus, was attacked over the weekend leaving the bus driver critically injured.
This morning I had an urgent meeting with the CEO of Intercape Bus Company together with the Provincial Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Reagen Allen, following yet another shooting at an Intercape bus yesterday (Sunday, 31 July 2022). Daylin Mitchell
Mitchell says: “The driver was shot at the company’s Airport Industria depot on Sunday afternoon. He is in a critical but stable condition in hospital. The continued brazen attacks on long distance buses constitute organised crime, perpetrated by a criminal element, reportedly with links to the minibus taxi industry.”
“I have instructed our officials to check and verify all long-distance bus operating licences and to impound all vehicles that are operating without- or contrary to the conditions of operating licences. I also intend raising the matter with the national Minister of Transport and my provincial counterparts in a MinMEC meeting to address the perception among bus operators that politicians and enforcement officials are failing in their duty by allowing a group of criminal extortionists to hold both the bus and minibus taxi industries hostage to their demands for price fixing by flooding routes with illegal operators while preventing legal operators from operating in certain areas,” says the MEC
Mitchell adds: “I have reiterated my instruction to Provincial Traffic to monitor long-distance bus operations and, with the support of the SAPS, be on the lookout for any ‘patrol vehicles’ that illegally stop and extort buses and other private vehicles along key routes between the Western Cape and neighbouring provinces.”
The Western Cape Government will not condone criminal acts of extortion, will not negotiate with – nor try to appease criminals, and will not allow the rule of law to be compromised.
