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Hundreds of Knysna residents had to abort or change their plans made long ago for this Easter weekend, due to the national bus strikes that started on Wednesday, April 12.
This strike was the result of failed negotiations between unions and employers over a pending salary increase.
Zukiswa Mambo, a Knysna resident who was to travel to the Eastern Cape to visit family, was just one local affected by the strike.
“I received a text message from City to City alerting me about the strike and that I need to go to the station to get my refund where I bought my ticket and I did exactly that. Even though I understand their grievances, this is a huge inconvenience – a strike during one of their busiest times.”
Sinothando Zwayena, who booked a bus from Kimberley to visit family in Knysna, was another casualty of the strike, “I booked a bus for Wednesday, April 12. When I heard rumours about the strike I went to Shoprite a day before my supposed departure and was told by the cashier that our bus was not affected by the strike and will therefore be moving.”
She said she called the head office to confirm this and at 19:00 Zwayena was at the information centre in Kimberley waiting for her bus, “We sat there waiting until the early hours of the morning, not a single bus pitched. I then had to travel by taxi in the morning.”
Zwayena’s mother Boniswa Zwayena said that she had to drive to Port Elizabeth very early Thursday morning to pick up her daughter, because she couldn’t get a taxi to straight to Knysna.
“When I heard that people will get refunds, I left my ticket with a family friend and asked her to get the refund for me, but after several visits to the Translux station she still couldn’t get it because she was told they did not have the money.”
On Tuesday, April 18 she said she went to the station again to get the refund. “I was again told by the cashier that they don’t have money, but they can reprint my daughter’s return ticket to Kimberley. I was livid, but her colleague then intervened, reprinted my daughter’s ticket to Kimberley, gave me a refund and now I am puzzled –where did the money all of a sudden come from? How many people who travelled by taxi from the location to the station were told there was no money?”
The newspaper managed to get a comment from a City to City driver who wishes to remain anonymous. He said, “I have a family, a wife and children to feed and honestly cannot take care of them with my current earnings. I have been working for the company for years, but the numbers do not reflect. We had to stand up and raise our grievances against the system that is robbing our families.”
He said drivers do not get proper rest on long-distance trips as they often have to sleep on the bus – while a co-driver takes over – which is not ideal to get proper rest. “Sometimes passengers can be very noisy, making it impossible for us to sleep. Another thing is that there are heaters under the chairs, which some might think is ideal but in actual fact it’s not,” added the driver.
Adding to this, he said, they have no medical aid, share hours and get normal pay when they work on Sundays.
The Knysna-Plett Herald tried to get a comment from Translux/City to City head office but phone calls went unanswered.
The strike ended on Friday, April 14 after the 9% across-the-board wage increase proposed by the SA Passenger Bargaining Council was accepted by sector trade unions representing the workers.
The Garden Route provincial secretary for SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), Xolani Mesteli, said locals in the Garden Route area were not that heavily affected by the strike, “This was not a long strike and most of the people who made travel plans were going to use their own vehicles and the learners were already on holiday.”
He said they had to accept the proposed increase because it is a fair deal,”The intention of the strike was for our members to get more benefits; it is just unfortunate that we have to resort to such methods to get our message across. We’re happy with the one-year agreement,” concluded Mesteli.
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Source: Knysna Plett Herald News