Safety concerns as Putco resumes operations in troubled areas

The safety of passengers and drivers has come into sharp focus as bus company Putco gears up to resume services in troubled areas, amid threats of violence and the dismissal of drivers seen as the instigators of the past week’s strike action.

The company intends resuming services in Mpumalanga and Gauteng following a week-long wild-cat strike by drivers demanding a 6% salary increase, and the immediate payment of 2020 bonuses.

Instead, 105 drivers out of 1000 workers were served with letters of intention to dismiss on Monday, for their part in the illegal strike, while the company has said it may even axe more.

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Dozens of others who have not been dismissed have been issued with final written warnings, while others will be hauled before internal disciplinary processes.

The striking workers, who this week clash with police at the company’s depots in Soweto and Pretoria in Gauteng, burning tyres and stopping management and non-striking workers from leaving, have vowed to stop operations.

Threats

“Now we are not scared because we have been fired anyway. So, what we can promise Putco is that no bus will leave the depot. Those that leave the depot will never return. This will not stop until we are paid what is owed to us,” Piet Masombuka, one of the sacked drivers, said.

Putco said the threats were worrying, but insisted the court order obtained on Thursday did not only prohibit blocking or obstructing entrances to their premises, but also preventing passengers from embarking or disembarking any Putco buses.

Company spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu said this gave law enforcement agencies the freedom to act in accordance with the law in case there were attacks on passengers, staff and property.

“We have received their threats and we are co-ordinating these with the law enforcement agencies. Already we have police watching our business units and we also have private security assessing any threat,” he said.

ALSO READ: Putco workers vow to continue strike action, despite termination threats

Xulu called on all employees to resume their normal duties so that Putco could resume the much-needed service to hundreds of thousands of bus commuters stranded since the beginning of September.

The company has had to remove buses from all its depots in the former KwaNdebele homeland in Mpumalanga for safe-keeping, following information that they will be torched.

Caught in the crossfire

The majority of people in the former KwaNdebele homeland rely on Putco buses to commute between their villages and Pretoria in Gauteng for work, business, or school, and have been the hardest hit by the strike.

Many had already purchased their weekly or monthly tickets when the drivers hit the brakes and had to turn to taxis, an expensive exercise for such a daily commute  

Sonto Mthimunye of Machiding, about 160Km north east of Pretoria, survives by running a food stall at Belle Ombre bus station in Marabastad and spent R380 on a weekly bus ticket but now has to spend R160 a day on a return taxi fare.

“If the strike does not end, I will have to stop because it is just unaffordable. Taxis also drop you off too far and are safety risk since we leave and come back in the dark. I have four children I support by running the food stall. I will have to wait until the bus service resumes,” she said.

Frustrated commuters fearing to lose their jobs have since asked Putco to issue official letters they could give to their employers, confirming that they were unable to go to work due to the strike.