A Re Yeng bus hijacked with passengers on board

A dispute between Tshwane metro and taxi operators apparently led to the hijacking of a bus from the city to Stinkwater in the north of Tshwane, with passengers still on board, Pretoria East Rekord reports.

The A re Yeng bus was hijacked on Tuesday following dissatisfaction among taxi drivers who were apparently in breach of an agreement entered into between taxi associations and Tshwane metro.

READ MORE: Tshwane buses go the extra mile

The bus was later recovered by the Tshwane metro police and escorted back to Rainbow Junction transport node.

Operations at Bloed Street mall, Marabastad and Rainbow Junction transport node were temporarily halted for about two hours as a result of the incident.

The city of Tshwane has meanwhile, called an urgent meeting aimed at putting taxi associations on terms to ensure that all drivers honour the agreement entered into on their behalf.

“Failure to comply will lead the city to pursue legal action to rectify the situation and ensure that commuters get the services to which they are entitled,” said Tshwane MMC for roads and transport Sheila Senkubuge.

“In December 2017 the city entered into the drop-off agreement with the three taxi associations originating from Hammanskraal, Stinkwater and Eersterus.”

The agreement commenced on 8 January with both parties having agreed that the three taxi associations would no longer proceed into the CBD from their point of origin, but will drop off passengers at Wonderboom Junction in the morning and pick them up back to Hammanskraal, Stinkwater and Eersterus respectively at a single trip fare of R17.00.

The A Re Yeng buses will then pick up those passengers from Wonderboom Junction to the CBD up to Hatfield for a single trip fare of R8.00.

“On 16 January, taxi drivers of all three taxi associations were forced to drop off at Wonderboom Junction as per the agreement with taxi operators. The reason for the forceful drop-offs is that, since the 8 of January, taxi drivers were not dropping off as per the agreement and charged passengers R24.00 and R23.00 respectively instead of R17.00,” said Senkubuge.

The forced drop-offs resulted in the protest by taxi drivers who refused to load passengers from Wonderboom Junction to their respective destinations in the north. Instead, they referred passengers to a hiking spot near the  Wonderboom Junction which frustrated commuters.

Senkubuge said: “The city of Tshwane is committed to ensuring that commuters get the necessary services they need which is reliable and safe transport in a well-connected city of opportunity. In doing so we will ensure that all stakeholders who enter into agreements to provide service to our people do so or risk facing the might of the law.”

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