Cape Town - A new police task team has been established to crack down on the interprovincial violence on long-distance bus services, following years of attacks that left a driver dead and many others wounded.
The team consists of members from various disciplines including the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), crime intelligence, visible policing and investigators.
This emerged at a media briefing in Parliament where Police Minister Bheki Cele was joined by his deputy Cassel Mathale and other top brass officials.
Cele said 38 cases of attacks on long-distance coach company Intercape, Golden Arrow and Mavumisa buses were registered last month alone.
He said 16 people had been arrested and face charges including public violence and malicious damage to property.
“Interventions to stop the attacks and violence in this sector have included investigative task teams reliant on early warnings from crime intelligence to make arrests and prevent further attacks.
(The) Transport priority committee has been meeting with affected stakeholders including the Bilateral Task Team consisting of officials from the Eastern and Western Cape.
“The ministry is comfortable with the measures in place to curtail violence, intimidation, threats and disruptions in the transport sector,” Cele said.
The Cape Times asked why there had been no arrests in the Eastern Cape where Intercape bus service incidents predominantly occurred, and why the task team was recently established.
The bus operator had reported about 150 incidents of shootings, stonings, and other acts of violence and intimidation. It also reported losing millions of rand to extortion.
Eastern Cape Police Commissioner Nomthetheleli Lillian Mene said the incidents happened at night with the R61 route being a hot spot and complainants couldn’t see the attackers.
“The challenges we have been faced with include bus drivers not reporting where the incident happened but driving to the next town or even as far as here in Western Cape to report the incident.
“We are collecting all these cases now that we have this team, and this will assist us to accurately know the number of incidents or cases reported.
The team will probe everything including threatening calls or text messages that were made to either the bus drivers or company owners.
This will assist us to make arrests. We rely on them to share the information,” said Mene.
Western Cape Police Commissioner Thembisile Patekile said they were also hoping to make more arrests and were working with the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to investigate challenges such as theft and alleged extortion.
“We saw the video that was circulating with armed men at a railway on the central line and we are investigating.”
Mobility MEC Daylin Mitchell expressed his disappointment saying more action needed to be taken to address crime.
“We need less talk and more meaningful interventions to address the very worrying increase in criminal acts of extortion, racketeering and murder, targeting public transport operators in the Western Cape and other provinces.”
Cape Times