Durban - Scores of passengers were stranded for hours on Tuesday after a bus belonging to the country’s largest intercity transport service, Intercape, was stopped near Harrismith.
This came just days after the Daily News’ sister paper, the Daily Voice, reported that the long-distance bus company could lose its licence after Western Cape police found R5 million worth of illegal abalone hidden on an Intercape bus at the Cape Town bus terminus.
Thirty-eight-year-old Bonginkosi Ndaba, who is confined to a wheelchair, was among those stranded Tuesday near Harrismith.
Ndaba, from Durban, had been visiting family in Johannesburg. He was on his way home when police stopped the bus.
“The driver got out and spoke to them and it turned out, he did not have the correct permit,” Ndaba said. “It seemed as though the driver knew the bus wasn’t supposed to be carrying passengers.”
As a person with a disability, Ndaba was left without access to ablution facilities for several hours, and felt his rights had been violated.
“It’s a terrible situation, it’s incredibly uncomfortable,” he said.
More than 20 people were aboard the bus, among them a child, Ndaba said.
The bus was pulled over at about noon, and Intercape was understood to be sending a second bus. But by 3pm, it had still not arrived. Intercape on Tuesday confirmed the incident.
“The unfortunate situation has its origins in Intercape’s continued struggle with the administrative disarray at the Gauteng Provincial Regulatory Entity (GPRE), which operates under the auspices of the Department of Transport,” it said in a statement.
“Long before the expiry of the permit, Intercape made application for the renewal of the permit.”
Ordinarily, the renewal was received within a few days, the statement went on. However, this was apparently not the case and Intercape said the GPRE subsequently advised it the provisions of regulation 25 of the 2009 Regulations to the National Land Transport Act applied.
These provisions, the statement read, provided that so long as a receipt could be produced, showing application had been made for the renewal of the permit, the permit would be considered to remain valid until the renewed permit was either refused or issued.
“We can confirm that after managing to get hold of management at the Harrismith traffic department, they let the bus go.
“The bus left Harrismith about three hours later and we do apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience they suffered,” Intercape said.
Daily News