OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Monday 11.30am.
A GOLDEN Arrow bus driver was shot dead and six commuters were wounded on Monday in Delf, one of Cape Town’s townships.
The police’s Superintendent Wicus Holzhausen said the bus driver died after gunmen, believed to be from a minibus taxi organisation locked in a turf war with the public bus company, opened fire on him. The attackers also lobbed a petrol bomb at the bus, setting it alight.
Six commuters were injured in nearby Khayelitsha when another Golden Arrow bus was shot at while it was picking up passengers.
Five people were shot in the legs and the sixth was hit by a car while trying to avoid the bullets. They were taken to hospital and were in a stable condition.
Holzhausen said police have called in the defence force to help them patrol the townships.
A Golden Arrow spokeswoman said that the driver, identified only as Mr Swart, is the second to have died in the violence in the past few weeks.
A driver for the company was shot dead in nearby Nyanga in April after the taxi operators issued a demand for bus services to withdraw from the townships. The demand followed a hike in taxi fares that made the buses a cheaper option for commuters.
On May 11 another driver was shot and wounded when taxi operators went on the rampage in the townships, stoning buses and a police station.
Attempts to broker a deal between the bus company and the taxi operators failed on Friday when a mediator told the taxi operators their demands are unrealistic.