Court orders government to provide security for underfire Intercape buses

The High Court in Makhanda ruled on Friday that authorities in the Eastern Cape province must take positive steps to ensure that reasonable and effective measures are in place to provide safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers

The order comes after the bus company brought the matter against the Eastern Cape Transport MEC and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to court after a series of attacks on its buses, drivers, and passengers.

Judge John Smith declared that the MEC and Mbalula had failed to take positive steps to ensure that measures are put in place to provide for the safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers in the Eastern Cape.

Smith said the MEC and Minister had an obligation to do so.

The Judge also found that the MEC had “acted unlawfully” when she directed Intercape to enter into negotiations with the minibus taxi industry and to suspend its services in certain towns in the Eastern Cape pending the outcome of these negotiations.

Intercape told the court that in recent months “the intimidation and violence in the Eastern Cape has escalated to unprecedented and intolerable heights” and that certain towns in the province had been unlawfully closed off to long-distance coach operators.

To date, the towns of Ngcobo, Cofimvaba, Tsomo, Butterworth, and Idutywa in the province are still considered no-go zones for Intercape despite pleas by the public to reopen these stops. Commuters are now forced to only make use of minibus taxis

Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira said they had forewarned the Minister of Transport, as well as the Minister of Police, about the storm that was building against the long-distance coach industry but nothing was done.

“We wrote to the President of the Republic of South Africa, to the responsible ministers, to senior police, and the provincial government in the Eastern Cape to plead for assistance but to no avail. We have paid a very dear price for this inaction and ineptitude.”

Ferreira added that the court order was an important step in holding responsible Ministers and other office bearers to account and preventing the “gross dereliction” of their duties.

“It is our hope that this court order will be the spur for government, through the ministers of transport and police, to take decisive and meaningful action to stop this criminality and to bring those responsible to book. We are ready to work with the government.

“Sadly, it rings true that ‘blood alone moves the wheels of history’ and in this case it was the loss of an innocent life in Intercape driver Bangikhaya Machana,” he added.

-IOL

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