The drivers’ strike was escalated to the entire community rejecting the bus operator, which caused havoc considering that buses are the only mode of transport in the area, an occurrence that affected the socio-economic order of the community.

Consequently, the 28 buses operating in the area were not working and members of the community could not access important amenities,and critically school learners became the most severely affected as they could not be transported to school.

Strong allegations emerged that some community leaders were behind the boycott of the operator, because they now had a preferred operator.

MEC Kaunda announced that operations will resume on Thursday (15 February 2018) of this week, and has called on community leaders to engage with the Department when there are challenges instead of dividing the community to disrupt operations.

“It is very unfortunate that the community had to suffer for weeks without transportation. We had to intervene because as government we are constitutionally obliged to provide a safe, reliable, accessible and affordable public transport, especially to underdeveloped communities. After engaging with Amakhosi and members of the broader community, we have agreed that bus operations will resume as of Thursday this week. We have taken this decision with a conviction that no further disruptions will happen and the police have already developed a clear security plan to avert any eventuality,” said Kaunda.

Kaunda further cautioned community members not to be divided by competing or opportunistic operators, who have interest in taking operations ran by other operators. This comes after his (Kaunda) meeting last week with some of the operators, all in order to ensure that no further disruptions occur.