Cape Town – Golden Arrow buses were being stoned at the Nyanga police station and terminus on Friday morning, while vandalism of essential infrastructure has had an impact on the Northern line train service.
Two bus drivers had to be taken to hospital with slight injuries, Cape Town Traffic spokesperson Richard Coleman said 7.25am.
The SA Police Service, Metro Police and SANDF troops were dispatched to attend to the violence, added Coleman.
At 11.41am, Coleman said "Metro Police reports their TRU withdrew from area… Golden Arrow reports the area is safe. They are entering the area".
The Borchard's Quarry Road link to the N2 was being utilised as a pick-up point for Golden Arrow commuters.
According to Metrorail spokesperson Riana Scott, aside from the Northern line, it's business as usual for the train service in the province after Eskom had cut the power to its operations temporarily on Thursday over overdue payment of 34 days.
The passenger rail agency Prasa then submitted proof of payment of arrears to the power utility and apologised to commuters for the disruption of train services. It is understood that Prasa owes Eskom R250 million.
"Vandalism of essential infrastructure at Mutual impacting train service on the Northern line. Trains are manually authorised between between Mutual and Parow," said Scott.
She said commuters have to allow for an extended travel time of 40 to 60 minutes.
Commenting on Prasa's problems, Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula said last night: "I've explained that this is a broken place that we are reconstructing. So it's not a place that is easy."
Mbalula said the Treasury's budget on Wednesday will not make it easy to turn around the fortunes of Prasa.
"It takes part of the money from Prasa away and that is the biggest challenge we are faced with in the shuffling and reshuffling of the work that needs to be done going into the future.
"It means that some of the plans we've got, including capital expenditure programmes, will suffer and then at the same time they will be delayed for some time."
Cape Times