Cape Town - Bus ownerssay they are being victimised by city traffic officials for “forcing” them to have their vehicles checked several times throughout the day.
At the weekend, provincial and city traffic officials inspected taxis and buses at the Joe Gqabi transport interchange in Philippi, during Operation Exodus, to see if they were roadworthy.
Yesterday, a bus driver was arrested after he refused to have his vehicle checked.
Bus owner Hamilton Baleni said the city was trying to intimidate black bus owners.
“Why does the City of Cape Town only focus on black people? Greyhound drives straight to their destinations and don’t have to bring their buses here to Stock Road.
“People are very upset. They stop our buses again in Bellville and Worcester.
“Maybe they want to take jobs to the white people. There is definitely a third force at play.”
Baleni added that traffic officials carried out full roadworthy tests every day although they claimed to carry out minor checks.
“If there is no hubcap on a tyre we feel it is a minor problem, but traffic officials won’t let you leave.
“We don’t have a problem with bus testing as long as it is done in a proper way.”
Ndolile Yekiwe, a bus owner, said while they did not want to load their buses without safety checks, the vehicles should not be checked every day. “We feel they should be tested once during the festive season.”
Yekiwe said they were especially unhappy since there had been an agreement between bus owners and the Transportation Licensing Board to check buses on a voluntary basis.
AGREEMENT CHANGED
“On Monday we agreed that our buses would be checked once. After that it would be voluntary checks with no stopping en route. But today that agreement changed when they arrested one of our drivers who refused to be checked.
“Our query is why not go to Greyhound or Intercape, those white people companies. They are not getting victimised.”
City of Cape Town Traffic spokeswoman Maxine Jordaan confirmed that a bus driver was arrested for “disobeying lawful instruction” and detained at Brackenfell Police Station.
She said every bus driving up country was checked before it left the city, including those belonging to well-known companies.
“Over the festive period there are voluntary safety checks, not full roadworthy checks. The province has stops across bus routes. Permits and driver fitness are also checked, and not only buses.”
Mayoral committee member for Safety and Security JP Smith said his only interest was to bring down the death toll.
“Operation Exodus is one team. If I can choose a place where our resources should be utilised it is at Joe Gqabi.”
He said if a bus driver refused to stop for a safety check it raised suspicions of an unroadworthy vehicle.
Smith rubbished claims that security checks were racially motivated.
“Most accidents occur during long distance journeys, and we have found that smaller operators take the biggest chances.
“The highest amount of non-compliance vehicles comes from smaller companies.”
Cape Argus