More bloodshed on a bus
2008-02-03 08:07
Nelspruit - Bus company Buscor has been asked to explain itself after yet another passenger was killed on one of its buses.
The bus was travelling from Nelspruit to Emganduzweni near White River at about 23:00 on January 19 when some thugs tried to rob someone.
During the scuffle, a gun went off and passenger Moses Dludlu, 27, who was sitting some distance away, was shot. He died on the bus.
Dludlu was a cook at a restaurant in the Riverside Mall and was his family's only breadwinner.
Two suspects escaped through the bus windows after the incident, while a third was caught and handed over to the police.
He appeared in the KaBokweni magistrate's court and is in custody until his bail hearing on February 7.
This is not the first violent incident on a Buscor bus.
In June 2005, passengers watched in disbelief when thugs threw a man out of a moving bus and killed him.
Chairperson of the South African Passengers Organisation (SAPO), Veli Mathe, said SAPO called a meeting last year when two other commuters from Manzini near Hazyview were stabbed and nearly died on a Buscor bus on October 16 last year, but that Buscor failed to attend.
Buscor ferries between 35 000 and 40 000 passengers a day.
Spokesperson for Buscor, John Ngombe, said the company couldn't be held liable when passengers fell victim to crime.
"We are only liable when a passenger is accidentally injured on the bus, not when it is a result of violent crime," Ngombe said. "In such cases, the law must act against those who practice acts of hooliganism and gangsterism on our buses."
He said it's up to passengers to take responsibility for their own safety, the way they would do if they visit "shebeens or taverns late at night".
One passenger, Bheki Mabuza of Matsulu, who works for an engineering company in Nelspruit, said he had been a Buscor passenger for the past 20 years and now feared for his safety.
"They simply don't care about us. All they want is to enrichment themselves. I mean (Ngombe) was like us - a passenger. We are not using the company by accident, but because we dearly need it to get to work in order to support our families."