A Johannesburg bus driver has been vindicated after an investigation found he did not racially abuse eight high school pupils and then force them off a bus, Metrobus said on Monday.
The investigation conducted by Metrobus into the incident found that the ”issue was not a racial issue as reported in the media”, but rather an ”altercation” between the pupils and the driver after he arrived late at their pick-up point.
A meeting was held between Metrobus and Parktown High School for Girls and Parktown Boys’ High School on Friday in which the matter was ”amicably” resolved.
The bus driver was cleared of the allegations against him after the Metrobus investigation as well as investigations by the two high schools.
After the incident on Tuesday last week, Gregg Bauer, the deputy headmaster at Parktown High School for Girls, told the media the children had been ”kicked off” the bus on Westcliff Drive — about a kilometre from the school.
The children had told Bauer that a black driver had arrived late and would not accept directions to the school from two white boys.
When other children approached the driver saying they needed to get to school because they had tests, the driver ”lambasted” them.
The parent of one pupil, Leena Bedworth, came forward shortly afterward and said her daughter, Simone, had been witness to the incident and that the other pupils had lied.
”My child told me that the children were lying. It’s not fair that this poor driver is getting victimised. They [the children] are lying; they demanded to get off the bus,” said Bedworth.
She had also contacted Metrobus managing director Bheki Shongwe to substantiate the driver’s claims that the pupils had taunted him after he arrived late to collect them.
The driver, who was new to the route, had been asked to go and help on the Parktown high school route after completing his normal route because of the Metrobus strike.
Both Shongwe and Bauer were not immediately available for comment. — Sapa