On Monday, in Gauteng, the driver of a school bus was shot in front of the children he was transporting.
The authorities suspect the incident is linked to an ongoing feud between the government and taxi operators, the latter being unhappy about children being taken to school for free by bus.
As is usually the case in SA when it comes to incompetence, thievery and murder, a prominent politician conveyed his ‘shock’, and the SAPS, of course, is ‘investigating’.
Mere hours after this criminal act 29 people died in a bus accident in the Eastern Cape.
Survivors said they repeatedly asked the driver to reduce speed.
These tragic incidents, again, raise questions:
For how much longer will the taxi industry be allowed to kill passengers, other motorists and murder any opposition?
And when will the government start taking public transport seriously?
Ask any politician and you’re bound to get a list of promises longer than the list of State Capture suspects, but as we have become accustomed to, it will be all just talk because talk is what these people are best at.
Why should SA be different from any other country, let’s say Germany, when it comes to public transport?
German taxi drivers don’t drive unroadworthy vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
And they don’t kill bus drivers.
Taxis and buses in Germany are all roadworthy.
‘But this is not Europe, it’s Africa,’ I hear you say.
Yes, it is, but why should our standards drop to dark levels just because of where we live?
After all, the government taxes us as if we are Europeans, if not even more ruthlessly, so we deserve a reliable, safe public transport system.
SA needs it to progress.
Forget about electric cars.
Our transport future will only start looking rosy when we have a decent public road transport system which includes buses, trains and taxis.
But unfortunately, for that we need a government that talks less about itself and does more for its people.
Sadly, it doesn’t seem as though such a government can exist, anywhere in Africa, so the criminal carnage will continue…
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