Cape Town – A 35-year-old Intercape bus driver reportedly lost his life after being shot outside the company’s depot in Cape Town on Monday.
Reports indicated that Bangikhaya Machana died in a hospital on Thursday.
According to IOL, Machana was shot as he left Intercape depot in Airport Industrial to pick up passengers.
“A total of 21 rounds were fired and he was struck three times. He was rushed to hospital where he died on Thursday,” the report quoted the bus company as saying, adding that the perpetrators fled the scene and there had been no arrests.
Times Live said that the fatality was followed by attacks on the long-distance bus operator’s fleet in Gauteng, which left two people injured.
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In a statement on Saturday, the company said the attacks came days after it went public about a “violent campaign waged against the industry by rogue taxi associations”.
“It came after Intercape, one of the industry’s largest and longest-standing companies, appealed to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government to urgently intervene to stop the violence directed at the long-distance coach industry,” the report quoted the company as saying.
According to News24, Intercape chief executive operation Johann Ferreira condemned the attacks and labelled the campaign of violence, which has included shootings, arson attacks and incidents of rock-throwing, as “business capture” or “industry cleansing”, and called for support from the broader business sector, the labour movement, as well as civil society.
The bus company said in the past 13 months, there had been more than 150 recorded violent incidents.
It said that in a number of these attacks, employees and passengers had suffered serious injuries.
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Composed by Mihlali Vellem
