A 35-year-old Intercape bus driver died in a Cape Town hospital on Thursday after being shot outside the company’s depot.
In a statement on Saturday, the company said the attacks came days after it went public about a “violent campaign waged against the industry by rogue taxi associations”.“It came after Intercape, one of the industry’s largest and longest-standing companies, appealed to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government to urgently intervene to stop the violence directed at the long-distance coach industry,” the company said.
“A 35-year-old Intercape bus driver died in a Cape Town hospital on Thursday days after being shot and critically wounded outside the company’s depot. “In the space of just 13 months, there have been over 150 recorded violent incidents, a number of which have led to serious injuries to employees and passengers of the bus operators in the long-distance coach industry.”
The company said assailants in a car opened fire on one of its buses, which was travelling from Pretoria to Mthatha, on the M2 in Johannesburg just after 7pm on Thursday. “A total of three shots were fired into the driver’s side of the coach, with the final shot narrowly missing the driver,” said the statement.