Cape Town - Melvyn Boer commuted to the Eastern Cape to work in the construction industry because he could not find work in Cape Town. Every second week he took an Intercape bus to Port Elizabeth, where he would work for a week at a time.
On Tuesday night the bus was hit by three petrol bombs. Two of the bombs were lobbed through the front of the bus and driver Dennis Moyo managed to bring the bus to a stop in Onverwacht Road, Strand. He opened the door and a number of people found their way out.
Passengers were screaming and some were compelled to jump out of windows.
Boer, 46, and another man died in the blaze and 32 people were injured – one of them, Regina Ngcwama, 60, was burnt on her face and arms. Ngcwama was on her way to a funeral in Cape Town.
“I crawled out on my hands and knees,” she said from her hospital bed at Tygerberg Hospital.
On Thursday Boer’s daughter Danielle, 21, said her father had been burnt beyond recognition. She said she could not come to terms with the way in which her father had died.
Danielle said she wondered if the men who torched the bus realised they had robbed three children of their father.
Intercape bus drivers have been on strike for a week, demanding that the company reinstate hostesses who were retrenched. There has been speculation that striking bus drivers were behind the attack. Moyo said the attack was the second attack on him while driving.
National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) spokesperson Vuyo Lufele was adamant its members were not involved.
Although he could not say for certain it was not Numsa members involved,
he said it was highly unlikely because the union was so close to a resolution with its negotiations with Intercape.
Cosatu also condemned the attack, describing it as “an attack by criminals that amounts to terrorism”.
“This kind of violence has no place in our society and must be condemned and exposed by all.”
@ladynikki2
Cape Times