Following numerous appeals to national government to act against a scourge of violence and intimidation against Intercape in recent years, the long-distance coach company has now called on newly appointed Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga to urgently intervene.
This follows a renewed attack on the bus operator by taxi operators.
Intercape reports that, shortly before midnight on March 8, an Intercape coach en route from Gqeberha, in the Eastern Cape, to Pretoria, Gauteng, was shot at in the Penhoek Pass on the N6, towards Bloemfontein.
A passenger was shot and had to be rushed to the nearest hospital.
In another incident on the same day, Intercape staff and security were threatened by taxi operators in Idutywa, in the Eastern Cape. Local taxi associations protested along the N2 highway near the town, resulting in the route being blocked off for Intercape’s operations for several hours.
Intercape says the police and transport authorities have long been missing in action and ignoring the company’s pleas for intervention, which has emboldened taxi associations and taxi operations to brazenly target Intercape and its passengers.
The coach company accuses police of being visible at key loading points in the Eastern Cape only 20% of the time, despite repeated requests for assistance, and in defiance of a court order.
Intercape once again approached the High Court in Makhanda on March 9 with an urgent application to compel police and national and provincial transport authorities to comply with earlier court orders, which ordered in favour of the safety and security of Intercape’s drivers and passengers.
Particularly, the former Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula was ordered to draft an action plan towards stopping the attacks on Intercape, which he appealed and got denied.
Five months have passed and neither the Minister nor provincial transport officials have developed an action plan that complies with the requirements of the court order. That which they did prepare fell woefully short of the mark, Intercape states, adding that even these minimal interventions have not been implemented properly.
Intercape is now asking the Makhanda High Court for relief to address the inadequacy of the exiting action plan as presented by the South African Police Service and the Minister of Transport, as well as the MEC for transport in the Eastern Cape.
The company is also asking that all State functionaries be ordered to do at least that which the existing plan requires, in the meantime.
Intercape has spent more than R1-million between January 12 and February 3 this year on private security to supplement police after the company restarted operations in what it first deemed as “no-go zones”, including Cofimvaba, Butterworth, Engcobo, Tshomo and Idutywa, where instances of violence and intimidation were particularly prevalent.
The company says it trusts the new Minister will regard this crisis as a matter that requires urgent attention and proper intervention.