Johannesburg - Metrobus bus driver Edward Marwala is in ICU after undergoing surgery on his gunshot wound following a robbery on the bus he was driving on Wednesday morning.
“He was operated on at Life Flora Clinic just before lunchtime and he has been making progress since he came out of surgery,” Metrobus spokeswoman Esther Dreyer said on Wednesday night.
The 58-year-old man was transporting commuters from Westgate to the Joburg CBD. At about 5.40am, when he stopped at a bus stop in Ontdekkers Road, two men jumped on the bus and told passengers it was a robbery.
“The men came onto the bus pretending to be passengers; three others waited on the pavement. When they got on, they told the passengers it was a robbery and they should lie down,” passenger Bradley Billet said.
He said the driver, who is known to his passengers as Ace, was shot and injured when he refused to listen to the men. “Ace told them to voetsek.”
And when they tried to steal his cellphone, he punched one of them.
“It was at that point that they shot him. I saw him fall,” he said. The bullet ricocheted and grazed one of the passengers who had been sitting next to Billet.
The passenger is in a stable condition in hospital.
The robbers stole the passengers’ valuables, including their cellphones and bags. Then they joined their armed assailants on the pavement and fled on foot.
Billet said all the robbers wore dark clothes, but their faces were not covered.
Another passenger, Buli Ndaba, administered first aid to the injured driver: “I’ve been travelling with Ace for years. I hope he recovers soon.”
SAPS spokeswoman Lieutenant-Colonel Katlego Mogale said no arrests had been made, and the police had launched a search for the robbers.
On beefing up security, Dreyer said: “We’re still engaging with the JMPD (Joburg metro police department) and police about whether they can help us, but if they can’t, we have to get a private security company to escort the buses early in the morning and late at night.”
Dreyer added that Life Flora Clinic was offering free counselling to all the passengers on the bus. Those interested can call her on 011-403-4300 or e-mail her on [email protected].
The Star