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Fikile Mbalula fights against order to protect Intercape from ‘violent’ taxi associations

Fikile Mbalula fights against order to protect Intercape from ‘violent’ taxi associations
Vincent Cruywagen
By Vincent Cruywagen
7 Nov 2022
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Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula is appealing against an Eastern Cape High Court order compelling him to draft an action plan to stop the attacks on Intercape’s long-distance buses. The festive season is around the corner and thousands of travellers using Intercape buses could be left unprotected.

The court order was issued on Friday, 30 September after Intercape sought urgent relief from the Eastern Cape High Court in Makhanda, which would allow safe passage for its buses through the area. The matter was heard on 19 September.

At the time of the hearing, more than 150 shootings, stonings and other acts of violence and intimidation directed at Intercape bus drivers and passengers had been reported to police in Gauteng and the Eastern and Western Cape. 

Judge John Smith found that Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula had failed to coordinate with the SA Police Service and integrate efforts to provide protection and support to Intercape against the more than 150 acts of intimidation and violence reported against assets and passengers.

Parts of the Eastern Cape have been a no-go zone for Intercape buses due to the company’s refusal to give in to demands by the taxi industry over where and when the company can operate, and what their tickets should cost.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Government must act to stop attacks on long-distance buses, Parliament told”

Intercape instituted legal action after the murder of one of its drivers, Bangikhaya Machana, in April this year.

Read more in Daily Maverick: “Murder of long-distance bus driver part of ‘campaign of violence’ against industry, says Intercape boss”

Action plan


The court directed that Mbalula and the Eastern Cape MEC for Transport, Xolile Edmund Nqatha, must — within 20 days — develop a comprehensive action plan in consultation with the police. 

The judge also ruled that former Eastern Cape transport MEC Weziwe Tikana-Gxothiwe acted “unlawfully” when she required Intercape on 27 May 2022 to “engage in negotiations with representatives of the minibus taxi industry for purposes of regulating the price, frequency or time of Intercape services in the EC and suspend its services pending the outcome of those negotiations”.

Mbalula was expected to file his action plan on 28 October, but instead filed papers appealing against the court’s decision.

The DA’s Western Cape spokesperson on transport, Ricardo Mackenzie, has criticised Mbalula’s decision to appeal against the order.

Mackenzie says he is worried about the upcoming festive season when thousands of people are expected to make use of interprovincial buses. He says that without the action plan, he fears the attacks on Intercape are likely to continue.

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“The minister has been presented with a perfect opportunity to counter the brazen criminality within the long-distance transport industry… However, he chose to shirk his responsibility,” Mackenzie said.

Colonel Priscilla Naidu of SAPS Eastern Cape has indicated that the police are aware of the court order and are busy studying it. The same applies to the Eastern Cape’s MEC for transport.

The court found that the violence was not random, but was part of a deliberate strategy on the part of certain taxi associations to intimidate and coerce Intercape into agreeing to the unlawful demands of those taxi associations.

When Intercape refused to accede to these demands, it was met with further acts of violence directed at its buses, drivers and passengers. 

The instigators then created “no-go zones”, making it impossible for the company to operate in Cofimvaba, Butterworth, Engcobo, Tsomo and Idutywa.

The judge said that “the facts of this case show that unless the Minister (Mbalula) and the MEC for Transport in the Eastern Cape are directed to develop an action plan and to be proactive in ensuring coordination between the various stakeholders, nothing will be done.

“In the face of functionaries’ complete failure to discharge their legal obligations, it is appropriate that they must be directed to develop the plan that is urgently needed, and to report to the court so that its adequacy can be assessed.”

Neither Mbalula nor Tikana-Gxothiwe filed answering or confirmatory affidavits during the initial hearing. 

‘Haughty dismissal’


The judge continued: “The minister has also unfortunately decided to remain silent in the face of allegations that he has haughtily dismissed Intercape’s desperate pleas for intervention in the crisis by adopting the attitude that it is an Eastern Cape problem.”

Judge Smith said that in this case, the “grinding of the wheels” will not even begin unless the MEC and Mbalula are enjoined by the court to comply with their statutory obligations.

On 3 November, Daily Maverick approached Mbalula’s office for comment. His spokesperson, Lwaphesheya Khoza, said the department’s legal team would provide a reply. 

The reply is yet to come. DM

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