Durban: Durban bus drivers are living in fear after an attack by robbers left one of their colleagues dead and a bus load of passengers traumatised.
Rajesh Haripersad, 54, was shot and killed at a bus stop in Parlock while transporting passengers from the Durban city centre to Newlands East on Tuesday morning. It is believed the gunmen boarded the bus in the CBD.
Malcolm Reddy, the alarms manager at One Stop Security, was one of the first responders at the scene. He said a taxi driver flagged him down and told him about the shooting.
“When I arrived, there were a lot of people standing around the bus. The driver was lying on his side with a bullet hole. The bullet had gone straight through his head,” he said.
He said none of the passengers needed medical treatment.
Reddy said he was told that a woman who was held at gunpoint had fled in shock after the gunmen ran away.
He said the passengers saw the men run into Parlock and, according to reports, got into a white VW Polo and sped away.
Ivan Naidoo, the owner of Leesans Transport, said Haripersad was a quiet man who had been with the company for more than a decade.
He said this was the second time that one of his drivers was shot and killed. The last attack was in 2019.
“All the drivers are scared now, not only my drivers but drivers from other companies too,” said Naidoo.
A member of the Newlands Bus Operators Association, who did not want to be named because of safety reasons, said the drivers were unwilling to work because they feared they would be next.
He said that last year two drivers from Tongaat were also attacked.
Haripersad’s son, Shahil, said: “There’s a lot of emotions I’m going through right now."
He said he had last seen his father, who had just moved to Newlands West, at a family gathering on Saturday.
Shahil described his dad as being one in a million.
Colonel Thembeka Mbele, a provincial police spokesperson, said five men who posed as passengers in the bus that Haripersad was driving, robbed all the passengers and then shot and killed him before fleeing.
She said charges of murder and robbery would be investigated after the matter was reported at Newlands East police station.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, a bus driver from Chatsworth was beaten up and shot in the arm on Saturday.
Claude Subramoney, from Amawele Emergency Services, said they found the driver lying next to his pool at home. He said the driver had managed to drive home after the attack and made it to the front door before he collapsed.
It’s understood there were no passengers in the vehicle at the time the driver was targeted.
Subramoney said they initially thought he was only shot until the bus driver complained that his shoulder hurt.
“When we cut his shirt, we saw that his bones were protruding and his collarbone was dislocated and crushed."
The man, who was in his 50s, was due to undergo multiple medical procedures on Tuesday.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said a case of murder and robbery were opened at Newlands East SAPS for investigation.
The Post