UPDATE: GNT claims their buses are safe
The Great North Transport Company has been under fire in recent times due to several of their buses being involved in road accidents. Accusations of unroadworthy vehicles have been doing the rounds.
According to GNT Marketing and Communications manager, Patrick Monkoe, the recent reports pertaining to the roadworthiness of the GNT bus fleet has done little more than create speculation on their reliability of their vehicles.
Law enforcement officials last week inspected GNT buses in their depots in the Mopani district. In both Giyani and Tzaneen, thirty five buses were inspected and nineteen were found to have minor defects. In Phalaborwa twelve buses were taken off the road, subject to mechanical defects having been identified. At the time of going to press, six of these buses passed roadworthy tests and are ready for operations.
According to GNT the original equipment manufacturers, Scania and MAN are responsible for maintenance on the mechanical components during normal service intervals. GNT claims they are committed to intensifying their quality checks on all mechanical and electronic services and repair work undertaken on their fleet.
When the Herald asked about the bus that was involved in an accident in Tzaneen last week, Monkoe claimed that there was no roadworthiness issues with this particular vehicle and that the accident was caused by a minibus taxi driving into the stationary bus.
The Herald showed him a picture of the running surface of one of the bus’ tyres. According to Monkoe, one can not judge the roadworthiness of a tyre from a picture. He also claimed that this particular bus passed its inspection on the day of the accident. Residents are welcome to look at the picture and decide for themselves.
At the time of going to press, no comment have been received from the GTM’s media representative, Neville Ndlala, or from local traffic authorities.
