‘It should’ve been me who was shot’
|Published
Dylan Coleman sits in a Gautrain bus guarded by a security personnel and two police officers in Centurion this week.Security has been beefed up after one of the bus drivers was shot on duty by allegedly disgrandled bus drivers who were fired after embarking on an illegal strike few weeks ago. Picture:Paballo Thekiso Dylan Coleman sits in a Gautrain bus guarded by a security personnel and two police officers in Centurion this week.Security has been beefed up after one of the bus drivers was shot on duty by allegedly disgrandled bus drivers who were fired after embarking on an illegal strike few weeks ago. Picture:Paballo Thekiso
The sight of the bullet holes in the door of the Gautrain bus inspire terror in bus driver *Tom Masoabi, who dreads returning to the route where a shooting took place this week.
Masoabi missed the shooting that left Gautrain bus driver Patrick Kgatle injured on Tuesday by “sheer luck”.
“It should have been me who was shot,” he told the Saturday Star. “I was driving behind his (Kgatle’s) bus and, according the rules, I should have stayed behind him but he was too slow.
“I overtook him and because I was now in front, I had to go towards Wierda Park instead – little did I know I was avoiding the shooting.”
Masoabi who, appeared still shaken, recalled how he had signalled to Kgatle after he drove past him that they would swop routes, unaware that the buses were being targeted.
Masoabi, a former truck driver who joined the Gautrain buses recently, following the firing of hundreds of drivers who had gone on illegal strike, now regrets leaving his former employer.
He said his mother wanted him to quit after she heard about the shooting and how it could have been her son who was lying in hospital with bullet wounds.
“I’m still counting my blessings,” he said. “Maybe I could be dead now who knows… Maybe I would have been killed because I wouldn’t have attempted to drive off like he (Kgatle) did.”
But Masoabi is not the only one thanking his lucky stars.
Dylan Coleman, a University of Pretoria student, missed the bus that was attacked by a few seconds.
“I saw the bus drive off as I approached the bus stop. I tried running after it… but I couldn’t catch it,” he remembered.
“I waited for almost 30 minutes at the bus stop and there were no buses.
“I called the Gautrain tracking number to ask whether the buses were coming and that is when I learnt from the call centre that there had been a shooting a few metres from where I waited and the buses had been suspended.”
Four days after the incident, there was a strained, almost funereal, quiet as the bus drove through suburb where the shooting took place.
Coleman was not worried because police had been posted on the buses to keep a close eye on any potential attacks as threats against the new Gautrain bus drivers continued to linger.
“The presence of police makes one feel much safer,” said Coleman. “Maybe if I had been on that bus that got shot at I might have felt differently, even now.”
Five suspects, all former Gautrain bus drivers, were arrested on Tuesday morning in connection with the shooting.
Charges against two of the accused were withdrawn before they appeared in court. They are expected to turn state witnesses.
The accused are Busisiwe Malema, 29, Frans Makadikoa, 47, and Jan Ndlovu, 47.
It is alleged that Ndlovu did the shooting.
It is also alleged that Malema posed as passenger and signalled for the bus driver to stop, so she could board the bus outside Engen Garage at the intersection of Reddersburg and Theuns van Niekerk streets in Rooihuiskraal, Centurion.
When the bus came to a stop, Ndlovu allegedly got out of a car and ran in front of the bus and opened fire, hitting Kgatle in the hip.
This week, Gautrain’s concession company Bombela said it was doing everything it could to ensure the safety of drivers and passengers.
Bombela spokewoman Kelebogile Machaka said the company was grateful to the SAPS for providing police to be onboard the buses.
“As the company, we already provide Gautrain security guards on board the buses but we appeal for further help from the government.
“We continue to co-operate well with the police that are already present at all Gautrain stations,” she said.
However Masoabi fears for the worst the day the police onboard the Gautrain buses are be withdrawn.
“Every day that I am at work, my phone rings off the hook with relatives checking up on me… it’s a scary thing,” he said.
*Not his real name - Saturday Star