Long-distance bus operator Intercape has been subjected to ongoing acts of violence and intimidation by taxi associations since 2015 – and the “sum total” of Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula’s intervention was “to attend a single meeting”, a high court judge has found.
Judge John Smith said a task team was formed at this meeting in the Eastern Cape on 11 October 2019 and had to report back to Mbalula.
However, Smith said this intervention failed to yield a resolution and nothing of consequence has transpired subsequently.
He said Mbalula has also “unfortunately decided to remain silent in the face of allegations that he has haughtily dismissed Intercape’s desperate pleas for intervention in the crisis by adopting the attitude that it is an Eastern Cape problem”
He said the evidence also clearly establishes that former Eastern Cape transport MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe “has failed to intervene in the current crisis in any meaningful way”.
This is contained in the reasons, published on Friday (7 October), for Smith’s order in the High Court in Makhanda on 30 September 2022.
The order, among other things, declared the Eastern Cape transport MEC and Mbalula obligated to take positive steps to ensure that reasonable and effective measures are put in place to provide for the safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers in the Eastern Cape and that they have failed to fulfil that obligation.
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