Africa-Press – South-Africa. A bus was hijacked, other buses were stoned and passengers fled for their lives, forcing transport company Putco to temporarily suspend its services during the EFF’s planned shutdown on Monday morning.
Putco spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu said the bus was hijacked when a woman driver was pushed out in Soshanguve. The vehicle was used to create a blockade in Dennilton. But police quickly recovered the bus and it was taken back to the local depot, Xulu added.
He said protesters demanded that buses be made available to transport them to their rally, but security personnel prevented them from entering the depot.
“Our staff buses were the first to encounter blocked roads and intimidation from demonstrators taking part in the national shutdown protest as they attempted to collect bus drivers aiming to report for duty in the early hours of Monday morning,” Xulu said.
In Soweto, a bus was stoned and damaged in Braamfischer. Passengers fled and the bus was abandoned, Xulu added.
In Eldorado Park, staff buses couldn’t access areas in the Vaal to pick up drivers. As a result, buses at the Nancefield depot couldn’t operate.
“A bus belonging to a Putco subcontractor was stoned by protesters in the same area,” Xulu said.
In Tshwane and Mpumalanga, he said, routes were blocked, and the routes remain unsafe.
Moloto Road, the main route between Gauteng and Mpumalanga, was also blocked.
“One staff bus from Mountainview had to take refuge at the KwaMhlanga police station
“Putco has logged these and many other incidents to the command centre established by the government. All the operations teams are on high alert and monitoring developments,” Xulu said.
Putco said on Thursday that it would not operate on Monday due to safety concerns relating to the shutdown.
However, the company had a change of heart on Friday after meeting Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga, senior government officials, and Southern African Bus Operators Association executives.
Putco previously told News24 that the government assured it at the meeting that all efforts were being made to maintain law and order so that economic activities would not be affected by the protest action.
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