Intercape takes police commissioners to court for contempt

Eastern Cape Provincial Police Commissioner Nomthetheleli Mene and National SA Police Commissioner General Sehlahle Masemola are set to appear in court on Thursday for contempt of court for failing to implement a September 2022 court order aimed at preventing violence and intimidation against long-distance coach passengers.

The application, which will be heard in the High Court in Makhanda, has been brought by Intercape.

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It has asked the court to imprison Mene and Masemola for 90 days for contempt of court.

Mene and Masemola are opposing the application and have denied that they have failed to implement an action plan to address the problem.

It has been claimed that Masemola, as national commissioner, is not involved in the daily policing operations of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Eastern Cape.

It has been further claimed that there was compliance by the SAPS with the order in that an action plan has been filed.

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However, it will not be implemented by the SAPS on its own but jointly with other law enforcement officials because of the strain it will place on SAPS resources.

2022 order

Intercape’s application follows Judge John Smith in September 2022 declaring that the Eastern Cape transport MEC and the national minister of transport – who at the time was Fikile Mbalula – were obligated to take positive steps to ensure that reasonable and effective measures were put in place to provide for the safety and security of long-distance bus drivers and passengers in the Eastern Cape, and that they had failed to fulfil that obligation.

The order required:

• Mbalula and the MEC to implement practical measures, including the formulation of an action plan with the SAPS, which must be delivered within 20 days or by 28 October 2022, on steps they intend to take 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
• Measures provided for in the National Land Transport Act be considered, including extraordinary measures, such as the closure of taxi routes and ranks in a declared area and the suspension of operating licences or permits in a declared area.
  

Smith said it is not disputed that the violence is not random but part of a deliberate strategy on the part of certain taxi associations.

“The violence is aimed at intimidating and coercing Intercape into agreeing to the unlawful demands of those taxi associations, which, among others, are that Intercape must reduce its prices and the number of buses operating on different routes and must pay levies to operate in certain areas,” he said.

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Smith added that the Transport Act vests in the MEC and the minister of transport extensive powers to intervene decisively and effectively to ensure the safety of members of the public when there is violence, unrest or instability in any sector of public transport.

Intercape ‘forced to take legal action’

Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira said on Tuesday the attacks are a result of a violent campaign waged against the long-distance coach industry by rogue taxi associations that seek to force the coach companies out of operation in the Eastern Cape and other key routes across South Africa.

Ferreira said that when Mene and Masemola fail to do what they are legally obliged to do and as the Constitution demands, Intercape is forced to take legal action.

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“Since the court ruling 15 months ago, which instructed ministers and SAPS officials to prevent acts of violence and intimidation against Intercape, they have instead spent their time focused on appealing the multiple judgments handed down by the courts against them,” he said.

Ferreira said rogue taxi associations 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, thereby enabling taxi operators to monopolise those areas.

Cases opened and arrests

He said Intercape has opened more than 176 cases with the SAPS in the past three years, largely in the Eastern Cape – with a further 40 in the Eastern Cape and eight nationally since the September 2022 court order.

Ferreira said many of these cases involve violent incidents, and a number of these attacks had led to serious injuries to employees and passengers of Intercape, with Intercape bus driver Bangikhaya Machana dying in hospital in April 2022 days after being shot outside the company’s depot.

According to Ferreira, the first arrest was only made this past weekend. Cape Town taxi boss Bonke Makalala was reportedly arrested for murder, attempted murder, extortion and other crimes.

Ferreira alleged that Makalala was the main character in the extortion process against long-distance coach operators.

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He further alleged that Makalala bought buses and introduced bus services on top of his existing taxi services from the Eastern Cape when long-distance buses were effectively temporarily removed from the hotspot areas.

“That was the intent all the time, to use the most ridiculous demands and violence and murder to drive the existing operators out of the Eastern Cape and for the taxi operators to then employ their own bus services,” he said.

‘It’s terrorism’

Ferreira said that with the SAPS failing to implement the court order, Intercape has had to employ private security, which is costing the company millions of rand to safeguard passengers, coaches, and drivers.

“It’s a very expensive exercise, but a very unnecessary exercise as well.

This is urban warfare.

“The thing that worries me the most is that … I think South Africa, because of this poor ANC government, has been desensitised to violence, and we accept violence as a daily occurrence.

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“That is completely the wrong mindset. It’s terrorism,” he said.

Ferreira said one Intercape bus had been written off after it went off the road during a protest.

These buses cost R7.5 million each, but the total cost to Intercape because of the protests and additional security has to date cost the company “over R50 million and counting”, he said.

Recent attacks

Intercape’s contempt of court application will be heard only a few days after three tourist buses in the North West were attacked and the passengers robbed.

Ferreira said these incidents happen on inter-city and tourist buses, but it makes everybody sit up when it happens to a tourist bus, which is wrong.

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He said a third of Intercape’s business is tourism, and it also operates tourist coaches and the “run up to Sun City”.

“South Africa cannot say that they do not know about these attacks. It’s a daily occurrence.

“It’s just another bus, another attack and just another day in South Africa. That is the ANC’s legacy. The murder rate and the desensitisation to murder and violence.”

Another case

In separate legal action, Intercape has brought an application to have the ongoing acts of violence and intimidation against coach passengers recognised, investigated and prosecuted as acts of organised crime.

The application has been brought against the minister of police, the national commissioner of the SAPS, the provincial commissioners of the SAPS for various provinces, the Hawks, the director of the National Prosecuting Authority, and the head of the Investigating Directorate.

It was heard on 20 September 2023, and judgment was reserved.

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here