Cape Town – A 42-year-old man has been arrested after two MyCiTi buses were damaged while transporting passengers during peak morning traffic.
He is due to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court.
The incident, which happened on Tuesday morning on Kloof Street in the CBD, left commuters traumatised. No injuries were reported.
Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said cases of malicious damage to property and possession of a dangerous weapon were opened for investigation.
Mayco member for transport Felicity Purchase said the two buses were stoned between 7.45am and 8am on routes 106 and 107. One bus suffered windscreen damage and the other two broken windows.
Although Purchase said the reason behind the attack wasn't clear, there were suspicions the man who committed the "malicious acts of vandalism" was among the MyCiTi dismissed workers who were still calling for the City to redeploy them.
Mahmud Fredericks, who had been commuting on one of the buses when a rock hit the vehicle, told News24: "I heard a loud bang, followed by shattered glass flying over our faces www.news24.com
"Thankfully, the paraplegic rail against the window prevented the rock from coming through the window, but just shattered it. The rock was lodged there."
He saw a man on the pavement and guessed he must have picked up rocks from the ground.
"The guy who threw the stone said to the driver, 'You are playing with my job'," he said.
"It was a very eventful and frightening morning, because I wasn't expecting rocks to fly around in Tamboerskloof," said Fredericks, who added that he would be giving the bus a skip for a few days while his nerves recovered.