Africa-Press – South-Africa. A bus transporting mourners to the funeral of a murdered InterCape driver was forced to turn back, allegedly by rogue taxi operators, in Idutywa on Friday.
Intercape said the coach carrying over 50 passengers was stopped by operators who refused to let them proceed to the hometown of Bangikhaya Machana, 35, for his funeral, which was set to take place on Saturday.
According to InterCape CEO Johann Ferreira, the coach travelling from Cape Town was transporting Machana’s family.
“The coach went to the local police station to try and offload the people there. The taxis followed them and one of our drivers went inside the police station to get help. The police did not want to come out to help,” Ferreira added.
The coach had no choice at that point but to leave and go to Mthatha, more than 80 kilometres away, because of “fears for the safety and well-being of family members”.
READ | Intercape bus driver killed as violent attacks on the company escalate
The bus eventually returned to Dutywa on Friday afternoon under police escort after the bus company appealed to senior provincial police to intervene.
Ferreira added that taxi operators had “absolutely no shame”, stopping and preventing a grieving family from laying their loved one to rest.
“This amounts to a mafia state and the authority of the state has been completely undermined and given over to criminal enterprises,” he said.
Machana died at a hospital in Cape Town on 28 April after he was shot outside the company’s depot.
The attacks on long-distance bus operators started in the last week of April in Gauteng and had left another two people injured.
Comment from the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) will be added once received.
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