After opening 165 criminal cases in the last three years without a single arrest or conviction, long-distance coach operator Intercape is suing Minister of Police Bheki Cele for the alleged failure of the police to stop attacks against the company.
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Last month, legal papers were lodged with the Makhanda High Court, citing Cele, National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola, the Head of the Hawks, the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the Head of the Investigating Directorate as respondents.
Provincial police commissioners of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were also cited as respondents.
Spokesperson for Cele, Lirandzu Themba, said the SAPS legal team had not yet received the legal papers, but the court papers slammed the police and investigative authorities for ‘their continued failure to stop this calculated campaign of criminality’.
‘As matters presently stand, there are no persons under arrest and no pending prosecutions,’ according to an affidavit submitted.
Intercape said the latest court action was a result of ‘inaction’ from the minister of transport and the Eastern Cape MEC for transport and community safety in responding to the crisis.
The Makhanda court previously ordered both officials to work with the South African Police Service to ensure the safety of passengers and Intercape employees.
The papers stated: ‘The risk of injury or death to Intercape’s drivers and passengers is as great as it has ever been. Intercape itself has no means to prevent it’.
At least three people were shot and wounded, and two were severely assaulted, in what the company described as ‘a campaign of organised crime’, in March alone.
‘The fish rots from the head and we have a police service which has done absolutely nothing to uphold public safety and ensure the arrest of perpetrators,’ said Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira.
‘We hold Minister Cele responsible for every failure of the police under his watch and we will not stop until there is full accountability to the travelling public in South Africa.’
The Intercape CEO’s affidavit also alleged that Intercape bus drivers, buses and passengers were subjected to widespread, ongoing acts of intimidation and violence at ‘the hands of the taxi industry’.
‘The violence and intimidation have not occurred in isolation but have been coupled with express demands from representatives of the taxi industry to operate on their terms’, the company’s papers further allege.
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Picture: African News Agency (ANA)