Cape Town – Passengers travelling on a Golden Arrow bus are lucky to have escaped with their lives after their bus was petrol-bombed and caught fire in Khayelitsha on Monday morning.
The arson attack on the bus comes as the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) embark on a two-day strike over the provincial government’s by-laws that affected the taxi industry. Santaco says the by-laws are unfair.
A video of a Golden Arrow bus on fire and passengers jostling to escape through the windows and the door surfaced on social media. The bus was allegedly torched by the protesting taxi association members.
It was a horrific ordeal for passengers who had to run through the fire to be able to reach the door, others resorted to escaping through the windows.
The spokesperson for the City of Cape Town’s Traffic Services, Kevin Jacobs, confirmed that a Golden Arrow bus and a MyCiti bus were torched in Khayelitsha.
Jacobs said officers were attending to civil unrest in the Khayelitsha area.
“The routes affected include Pama, Mongezi, Steve Biko and Japhta K Masemola roads.
Read also: Cape Town taxi strike kicks off, several buses set alight
“Motorists are advised to proceed with caution,” Jacobs said.
Last week, Santaco in the Western Cape said its members would go on strike over the provincial government’s by-laws that affected the taxis industry.
It said the strike would take place on Monday and Tuesday and would be peaceful.
Golden Arrow’s spokesperson Bronwen Dyke-Beyer said the bus company was trying its best to operate at full service.
“Golden Arrow is trying to operate as full a service as possible, unfortunately, the situation is unpredictable and volatile, so we don’t know what can happen from one minute to the next.
“We ask our passengers to please bear with us as we try our best to operate as full a service as possible.
“Any route or fare query should be directed at the transport information centre on 0800 65 64 63.
“We can also confirm one of our buses was, unfortunately, set alight this morning in Khayelitsha, just before 6 am. Fortunately, no injuries were reported,” Dyke-Beyer told SA Trucker.
Passengers escape from burning bus petrol-bombed in the Cape Town taxi strike » SA Trucker https://t.co/kgZKsoXoEk pic.twitter.com/RrxZbnCIQh
— SA Trucker (@rsa_trucker) November 21, 2022
