Durban – Durban motorists woke up to massive traffic backlogs after protesting Tansnat – Durban Transport bus drivers blocked roads around the city on Monday morning.
Hundreds of passengers were left stranded and had to seek alternative transport when bus drivers abandoned their vehicles along some of the major routes heading into and out of Durban.
Traffic was hugely affected especially in KwaMashu, Newlands and Umlazi.
The exact cause of the protest by bus drivers is unknown. However, at the time of publishing, the drivers were locked in a meeting with their bosses following the blockades.
By mid-morning however, most of the buses had been removed from the road.
According to KZN Traffic Facebook group the N2 North heading towards Gateway was affected, vehicles came to a standstill on the KwaMashu M25, the Springfield area in Sea Cow Lake and Umgeni Road was affected, N2 north on ramp from M25 Kwamashu highway. A bus also obstructed traffic on Connaught Bridge heading towards Durban.
Last week when the eThekwini Municipality executive committee requested approval of the roadmap for the establishment of the municipal entity to operate the Durban Transport services and participate by private individuals and/or entities in the Municipal entity.
The report is tabled on the background of the report approved at council in 2018 to enhance the public transport system of Durban.
Priority groups as per the Radical Economic Transformation Framework and Supply Chain Management Policy (2019) will be considered.
Provision is made for black people who fall within the following categories: youth, women, disability, people living in rural or underdeveloped communities, military veterans and co-operatives which is at least 51% by black people.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini voted against the roadmap.
The DA said a resolution that came before EXCO repeatedly and expressly mentions Tansnat – Durban Transport, and that it is the only ‘African’ bus service in the city. It goes on to mention that all other bus services are operated by those of ‘Indian descent’.
The DA explained that there are many Indian bus operators in Durban who have run successful, safe and reliable services for decades.
Ethekwini Mayor Nxolisi Kaunda later clarified that the category of black people is inclusive of Africans, Indians, Coloureds and Asians.
Some of the scenes during the Tansnat – Durban Transport bus driver strike earlier. Some of the busses have been towed off the the roads pic.twitter.com/Rf5kx11vyH
— SA Trucker (@rsa_trucker) August 31, 2020
