Cape Town - The long-distance long-distance bus operator Intercape has once again approached the high court in Makhanda with an urgent application to compel police, and national and provincial transport authorities to comply with court orders to provide for the safety and security of its drivers and passengers.
This as the company reports renewed attacks on its buses in the Eastern Cape where on Wednesday its coach en-route from Gqeberha to Pretoria was shot at in the Penhoek Pass on the N6 on the way to Bloemfontein.
During this incident, a passenger was wounded.
On the same day, the bus operator’s staff and security were allegedly threatened repeatedly by taxi operators, in Idutywa in the Eastern Cape, who blocked off the N2 highway for several hours in protest at Intercape operating from this and surrounding towns.
This has also resulted in the bus operator renewing its calls to the Transport Department and the police to intervene, this time to the newly appointed Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga.
The company is asking the Makhanda High Court for relief to address the inadequacy of the existing action plan as presented by police and the Transport Minister and Transport MEC in the Eastern Cape.
At the same time, the company is asking that, in the interim, all relevant state functionaries be ordered to “at least do that which the plan and implementation schedule require”.
In September last year, the high court in Makhanda ordered that the MEC and the minister, in consultation with the police and national regulator, develop a comprehensive plan on the steps they intended taking to ensure that reasonable and effective measures were in place to provide for the safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers in the province.
However, five months after this order, Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira said the MEC and then transport minister Fikile Mbalula have not developed an action plan which complies with the requirements of the court order .
“Worse, the minimal intervention for which the action plan does provide has not been properly implemented.
“The consequences, regrettably, are all too predictable. Having recently resumed operations in the ‘no-go zones’, Intercape once again finds itself the victim of intimidation and violence,” he said.
The Eastern Cape Transport Department was approached for comment but could not respond by the time of publication.