Cape Town – The Golden Arrow Bus Service (Gabs) has apologised to all its passengers in Cape Town who were affected today after its normal service schedule was disrupted.
After thousands of commuters were left stranded this evening, it also had no idea what operations will be in place tomorrow and cannot predict which routes and times will be affected.
The disruption occurred after another taxi violence-related shooting incident that occurred in the morning. It requested commuters to make alternative transport arrangements as it had received further threats via social media.
’’If possible, we would have continued our full operations but the situation simply became too volatile,“ Gabs said in a statement tonight.
My heart goes to thousands of people stuck in this wet and cold Cape Town weather and who can't get home because of the #TaxiViolence. Golden Arrow buses have suspended all their services due to being targeted by taxi drivers. pic.twitter.com/lgWNAvoKWR
— Advovo (@advovolicious) July 19, 2021
“We take our responsibility to our passengers very seriously and know that you depend on us to get home but today's events made it impossible. Our drivers are scared and many of them are not willing to get behind the wheel and we understand this.
’’This means that we have no idea what operations tomorrow will look like and unfortunately it is impossible to predict which routes and times will be affected.
GOLDEN ARROW BUS DRIVERS#TOOLSDOWN pic.twitter.com/pTYa9h7Unx
— Siyavuya Bravo (@siyavuya_bravo) July 19, 2021
’’We must therefore inform you that if possible it would be advisable to seek alternative transport for tomorrow morning. As soon as we have some indication of what is happening tomorrow, we will share it.’’
A Gabs driver was struck by a bullet through the mouth at the Borcherds Quarry drive on Monday morning in suspected taxi violence.
Last Friday, as one of its buses was entering Samora Machel, two drivers sustained gunshot wounds to the legs and were transported in a stable condition to a hospital.
Taxi drivers in the WC are literally a pandemic, what they put civilians through is utterly disgusting. If they don't want to take people to work, they want no other form of transportation on the road. Government needs to clamp down on them, they can't operate like this.
— Thami (@BT_Sidyani) July 19, 2021
Commuters and Capetonians were outraged by the latest state of affairs, with one social media user posting on Facebook: ’’Much appreciated Gabs and all the best for your drivers that were affected with these shootings from these rogue taxi operators.
’’The City of Cape Town needs to act and Daylin Mitchell, MEC for transportation, should stop holding meetings with them since they are not prepared to compromise, instead believing in anarchy and disrupting innocent, law-abiding taxpayers’ lives.’’
IOL