Detective work needed to solve violent bus attacks in Verulam
A bus driver was killed during an attack on a bus on Tuesday evening. A conductor and a pregnant woman were also injured in the attack.
Image: Reaction Unit South Africa
The Verulam Community Policing Forum (CPF) believes detective work can help uncover recent violent attacks on buses, which have left bus drivers dead.
This comes after another shooting claimed the life of a bus driver in Verulam, two weeks after another fatal shooting.
On Tuesday evening, Reaction Unit South Africa (Rusa) responded to a shooting where a bus driver was killed and his conductor and a five-month pregnant woman were shot in Redcliffe, Verulam.
Rusa spokesperson Prem Balram said the unit and Verulam SAPS Crime Prevention Unit responded to the scene after 6pm.
Balram said first responders learned that two suspects boarded the bus on the corner of Orchid and Redcliffe drives. The suspects produced firearms and opened fire indiscriminately before fleeing on foot. They did not steal any valuables.
“The driver and conductor were expedited to the hospital before the arrival of reaction officers and police. The driver was pronounced deceased shortly after his arrival at the medical facility. The extent of his colleague's injuries remains unknown.
“The 26-year-old pregnant female was seated on the side of the road. She was shot through her right thigh. She was stabilised on scene before being transported to the hospital in a stable condition,” Balram said.
A pregnant woman was among three people shot during an incident on a bus in Verulam on Tuesday evening.
Image: Reaction Unit South Africa
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda confirmed that the driver succumbed to his injuries at the hospital.
“Police in Verulam have opened a case of murder and two counts of attempted murder following an incident in which a bus driver and two passengers were allegedly shot by unknown suspects inside a bus on Orchid Drive at Redcliff in Verulam on Tuesday evening,” Netshiunda said.
He said the murder motive was unknown.
Verulam CPF chairperson Rachel Wilkin said this category of crime falls under police dependent because it is not a social crime.
“There are other motives which require detective work to get to the bottom of this; these now depend on police action. Only when they do their detective work and they put it before the court, will anyone know what is conclusive because even in front of a court, it has to be proved,” Wilkin said.
Wilkin said safe spaces are no longer safe.
Criminals invade schools, clinics, hospitals, churches, and even cemeteries.
“We have a breed of criminals now that have zero moral conscience. There’s zero ethics or humanity governing them or their actions,” Wilkin said.
She asked how one goes to bed at night after shooting a pregnant woman.
“We need to question what it is that we are doing as a society that is breeding this kind of inhumanity, this lack of compassion, this entitlement,” Wilkin said.
Two weeks ago, a bus driver died in hospital after being shot in the arm and abdomen during a violent attack on a bus in Verulam.
Image: Reaction Unit South Africa
On May 12, Balram reported that a bus driver shot during a robbery on Buffelsdraai Road in Buffelsdraai died in the hospital.
It is alleged that four suspects posed as passengers before producing firearms and shooting the driver while the bus was in motion. The bus left the roadway before stopping.
Balram said the driver was shot in the arm and abdomen. The suspects stole cash and robbed passengers before fleeing on foot.
thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za