MYCiTi bus drivers are fuming after having their pay docked despite not participating in the three-week bus driver strike last month.
|||Cape Town - MYCiTi bus drivers are fuming after having their pay docked despite not participating in the three-week bus driver strike last month.
The City of Cape Town suspended the MyCiTi service for two weeks last month out of fear for the safety of its drivers and to protect the buses from potential damage.
Speaking on behalf of several bus drivers on Tuesday, a MyCiTi driver, who asked not to be named, said their pay had been docked after they had been told the service had been suspended during the strike.
“There are a lot of things that are wrong here.
“We didn’t say we don’t want to work and join the strike, but they still took out money.”
The driver said he was paid only R2 000 for May, instead of his normal R6 000 salary.
The MyCiTi bus drivers operate under the companies Kidrogen and Transpeninsula, companies created by taxi associations on the West Coast after the MyCiTi service was introduced.
Antoine Smith, lawyer and consultant for Kidrogen, said the salaries had been cut because “the MyCiTi drivers decided that their lives were in danger if they continued to work”.
“Once they failed to commence their duties, they became part of the national strike, and the city was forced to suspend the service,” Smith said.
* Meanwhile, as of July 1, the MyCiTi tariff between the Cape Town Civic Centre and Table view will rise from R10.60 to R11.50 and the fare for a trip on an area service from R5.30 to R5.80. The airport shuttle fare will go from R57 to R62 for adults and from R28.10 to R30.30 for children aged four to 11.
Monthly tickets for the airport shuttle will rise from R449.50 to R484.60, while a myconnect card will now cost R25. Children under four years and shorter than 1m still travel free.
yolisa.tswanya@inl.co.za
Cape Argus