National shutdown: Putco buses to operate on Monday

Putco has told The Citizen that their bus services would operate as usual despite the national shutdown.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is expected to lead the planned protest on Monday, 20 March, with the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu).

While the red berets have been motivated by various reasons to embark on the nationwide strike, the main reasons given for the protest include demanding the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa, crippling load shedding, crime, the rising cost of living and unemployment.

Business as usual for Putco

Speaking to The Citizen, Putco spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu said the bus company initially suspended operations for Monday.

However, he said they changed their plans after an urgent meeting with the Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga, her deputy Lisa Mangcu and the South African Bus Operators Association (Saboa).

“They basically told us as operators, we need to operate on Monday as normal and that is a normal business day.

“So, we are going to operate under the instruction of the Department of Transport, who have also assured they have put sufficient security measures in place to ensure that passengers, staff and the general public are going to be safe-guarded by the relevant authorities,” Xulu said.

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Contingency

Xulu said Putco has also put contingency measures in place at regional bus depots.

“Another contingency that we have put it place is that we have authorised all of the business units in the region of Soweto, Eldorado Park, Mpumalanga, Soshanguve and Tshwane to monitor the situation.

“Should we feel our busses, passengers and staff are threatened, we’ll then suspend operations there and we’ll inform the department that we could not operate because of this reason,” Xulu said.

Intimidation and threats

Xulu said while they have not received any threats of intimidation and violence, they did receive letter from the EFF Gauteng region to “close shop”.

“As a company, our stance is that we are not supporting this national shutdown. So, we haven’t received anything directly threatening us.

“But the silver lining is there. There is a person, who has posted ‘it is good that Putco is operating so that it can take people to the picket line’. And then the leader (Julius Malema) of the political party organising this responded by saying ‘for free in fact,” Xulu said.

On Thursday, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) said it does not have any reason to believe that the EFF will disrupt taxis during the party’s national shutdown on 20 March, after getting assurance from the red berets leader Julius Malema

Santaco national spokesperson Thabisho Molelekwa said the association will not be taking part in the national protest on Monday, and will treat it as a normal operational working day.

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