Pretoria - Commuters from Mamelodi will bear the brunt of last week's political violence that resulted in 19 Autopax buses being torched in the township.
They will have to make alternative transport plans as Autopax - which runs City to City buses in the area - has suspended services. It is unclear when the bus company will resume operations.
The turmoil that engulfed the capital city was started with the announcement by the ANC that Thoko Didiza was the party’s mayoral candidate for the City of Tshwane in the August 3 municipal government elections.
Mamelodi resident Jacqueline Makhwintinge who relied on the City to City buses for transport to and from work said she has had to make alternative plans to get to work.
“This is an inconvenience. And it’s expensive because I spend R95 for a weekly bus ticket. Now I am spending over R50 a day to get to work and back home,” she said.
Autopax has said it is not clear when it would resume operations in the township. The bus company’s spokeswoman, Nozipho Jafta, told the Pretoria News they would be waiting to ensure that calm hah been restored before they start operations again.
“What is paramount to Autopax is the safety of our passengers and drivers.
“We will only resume operations once we are certain it is safe to do so,” said Jafta.
She could not confirm how much the company would have to fork out to replace the 19 buses that were burnt.
“At the moment we are still waiting for the insurance company to confirm the figures. We are not yet in a position to say.
“But one must understand that it is not only the buses that have had an impact on the costs, but also operational matters because we are losing money every day when we are not on the road,” she said.
Buses parked inside the Mamelodi depot have been moved to Joburg to avoid more being burnt.
Autopax was not the only bus company affected by the riots.
Putco also confirmed that three of its buses were set alight last week.
The company’s spokesman, Tshepo Tsotsotso, said: “Two of our buses were burnt on Monday, while a sub-contracted bus was burnt as well.”
He said it would cost the company millions to replace the torched buses.
“Ten of our depots were closed due to the protests but we resumed operations last Tuesday on some of the routes.
“We haven’t experienced any trouble since resumption of our services,” he said.
The City of Tshwane also decided to halt all operations during last week’s turmoil and only resumed services on Friday.
City spokesman Lindela Mashigo said none of the city’s buses was torched.
“We made a decision not to run our operations since the unrest started. However, we resumed a full bus service on June 24,” Mashigo said.
Passenger Rail Operations of South Africa (Prasa) spokeswoman Lillian Mofokeng confirmed that operations were disrupted and commuters were forced to seek alternative transport. But she said none of the stations or trains were vandalised.
The unrest led to the deaths of five people while more than 150 people were arrested in Mamelodi, Ga-Rankuwa, Soshanguve, Mabopane and Hammanskraal.
They face charges of being in possession of stolen goods, damage to property and public violence.
The situation remained calm over the weekend. The violence ended on Friday following heavy police deployment in the townships, during which officers moved from house to house in areas like Mabopane, searching for looted property. They recovered items ranging from clothing to refrigerators and furniture.
Pretoria News