Johannesburg - Employees at the Tshwane Bus Service have been caught in the cross-fire between management, striking unions and the private company A Re Yeng bus service.
As confusion mounted and commuters were left stranded without public transport for about a week, the capital’s mayor-elect Solly Msimanga on Wednesday went to the Tshwane Bus Depot to address employees and workers’ unions. But he couldn’t gain access to the bus depot as management at the Tshwane Bus Services (TBS) and the private company A Re Yeng Bus Service were reluctant to hold talks with him. A Re Yeng bus company is in a service agreement with the city.
Msimanga decried the plight of commuters and innocent employees saying there was no need for ordinary citizens to bear the brunt of poor management at the bus company.
“Nobody is willing to take responsibility about what’s happening here. The residents of this city need transport but buses are being locked in the depot,” Msimanga said.
The TBS has chronic service interruptions which seem to have had an unprecedented negative impact on commuters, he said.
The DA cannot and will not stand idly by while the citizens of this city are forced to deal with continued ANC infighting, said Msimanga.
City spokesman Blessing Manale said the Tshwane Bus Service management was at logger-heads with the two unions.
Management had tried to talk directly with the 64 striking employees to nominate three members to represent them during negotiations, “but they demanded we talk to them through the SA Municipal Workers Union”, he said.
The city was working with TBS to identify the individuals arrested last week and out on bail for assaulting TBS managers, he added.
The city has procured a court interdict which should result in all workers reporting for duty today, Manale said. Msimanga said should the city fail, he would escalate the matter to provincial level so commuters could get transport.
Pretoria News