Zara Nicholson and Barbara Maregele
A R50 000 reward has been offered by premier Helen Zille and mayor Patricia de Lille to anyone with information that will lead to the arrest of those responsible for Friday night’s stoning of a Golden Arrow bus in Khayelitsha that killed the driver.
They suggested yesterday that the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) be held accountable for the “terrible sequence of events” in which the driver, Sandile Hoko – a father of two – was killed and several others seriously injured.
Hoko, 55, lost control of the vehicle after it was stoned by protesters on the Mew Way bridge next to the N2 highway.
The bus swerved and crashed through shacks before it was brought to a halt by a house.
Five shackdwellers including a child were injured. Two people were in critical condition and three others were seriously injured. Hoko, who had worked for Golden Arrow since 2008, died at the scene.
De Lille and Zille said the incident had followed threats by the ANCYL to make Cape Town “ungovernable” and “bring Cape Town to its knees” by various methods including preventing “any and all Golden Arrow buses and taxis from operating”.
“These threats were widely reported in the media on the morning of this horrific attack. The perpetrators of the violence must face the full force of the law.
“The ANC Youth League must also be held accountable for this terrible sequence of events, following their calls to target public transport as part of their ‘ungovernability’ campaign. It is more than despicable to target innocent commuters using public transport, and those responsible must face the most severe punishment possible under the law.”
They said it was “a very serious reflection” on the ANC leadership, including President Jacob Zuma and provincial leader Marius Fransman, that they had not “reprimanded the ANCYL’s incitement to public violence”.
“The national ANC leadership has remained silent in the face of these threats, issued over a considerable period and
resulting in various incidents of destruction of public property – apart from the bus horror on Friday evening. The only inference that one can draw from the ANC leadership’s silence is that it condones its youth league’s incitement to violence and criminal activity.
“The city and province will not remain silent in the face of such actions. We await the outcome of the investigation of the criminal charges we have laid against the ANCYL.”
The ANC responded: “The Western Cape ANC outrightly rejects the DA’s latest publicity stunt to try and pin service delivery violence on the ANC. The DA’s cheap politics drips of opportunism, and its attempt to place the blame on the ANC is devoid of substance and truth. It is typical of the DA to shift the focus away from the real issues at the root of growing dissatisfaction with inferior service delivery in poor areas.”
The ANC said it condemned the violence and damage to property, and called on the DA, De Lille and her mayoral committee to meet residents about their concerns and to report on the steps to resolve them.
As relatives and friends gathered in Hoko’s Gugulethu home for a prayer meeting yesterday afternoon, his daughter Lisa Hoko, 26, was in shock.
“I was in Pretoria with my aunt where I study, when I saw the accident on TV and saw that it was my father. Why him? He didn’t deserve to die like that,” she said.
Hoko said her stepmother, Nosekeko Hoko, was devastated by his death.
“He was the breadwinner in the house. He was supposed to pay the rest of my university fees next month, but now he is gone and we don’t even know where to get the money to bury him in the Eastern Cape.”
Hoko said her father had been a community man who was a “jack of all trades”.
“He will be missed by his family and all our neighbours,” she said.
Yesterday, Khayelitsha resident Nomawele Ndyundyu was rebuilding her shack – one of several destroyed by the bus.
“I was at my friend’s home when it happened. We heard a loud bang and we ran outside. I heard people crying and saw everyone standing around trying to help. My whole house was flat; my oven, TV and bed are all broken. I don’t work and that was all I had,” Ndyundyu said.
She said the protesters who stoned the bus were selfish.
“How can they destroy other people’s things?”
City Disaster Risk Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said Golden Arrow management had inspected the bus and found that it had been stoned.
“It appears to be an isolated incident. However, a directive has been issued to the city’s metro police and the law enforcement services to be on high alert in the area,” he said.
Golden Arrow spokesman John Dammert said the new R1.5 million bus was a “write-off”.
l Last Monday a bus was torched in Philippi by protesting residents.
Passing trains were also stoned and nine people were arrested for public violence.