Long-distance coach company Intercape is at the end of its tether with the South African Police Services (SAPS) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), who they say are doing very little to investigate acts of criminality against its drivers and passengers.
Intercape has dragged the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, the National Commissioner of the SAPS and the Hawks, five provincial police commissioners, and the National Director of Public Prosecutions to court in an urgent application, compelling them to do their job.
The application was heard in the Gqeberha High Court on Wednesday.
Intercape is seeking declaratory relief regarding the SAPS's failure to fulfill its constitutional duties, as well as mandatory relief to guide the police in the discharge of their obligations.
In court documents, Intercape says for several years, it has been subjected to widespread and ongoing acts of intimidation and violence at the hands of the taxi industry.
At the time of launching the court proceedings, Intercape had lodged 165 criminal complaints with the police, but not a single person had been arrested and there is not a single prosecution pending in respect of any crime.
According to Intercape, SAPS only reported 22 cases to the relevant Director of Public Prosecutions, but a majority were sent back to SAPS for further investigation.
In 2022 alone, Intercape’s buses were shot at 23 times. One bus driver was fatally wounded while numerous passengers were shot and hospitalised.
During incidents where buses are stoned, rocks were sent flying through the windscreens, which caused drivers to lose control of the vehicles.
"The acts of violence and intimidation experienced by Intercape are not random.
"The criminality is part of an organised scheme by taxi operators who have demanded that Intercape and other long-distance bus operators increase their prices, limit the number of buses operating on particular routes, amend their timetables to ensure that all buses depart Eastern Cape towns before noon daily, and stop operating completely in certain towns, including the so-called “no-go zones.
"The aim of these attacks is to drive long-distance bus operators out of certain parts of the country, thus enabling taxi operators to monopolise those areas.
"This self-evidently forms a pattern of racketeering activity and constitutes organised crime, as contemplated in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act 121 of 1998 (POCA), which should be investigated by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI)," the carrier said in court documents.
Intercape accordingly seeks orders declaring that SAPS, failed to fulfill its duty to investigate and prevent the 165 crimes, that the provincial commissioners failed to report the crimes to the Hawks as instances of organised crimes, and that the Hawks failed to investigate the crimes as instances of national priority offenses.
The SAPS Respondents contended the following:
Intercape is of the opinion that the respondents’ persistent misunderstanding of their duties, deflection of responsibility and disregard of the seriousness of the issues at hand, required the Court’s intervention.
Judgment has been reserved.
