It is a gloomy Wednesday morning for Rea Vaya bus commuters as hundreds of Rea Vaya busses in the City of Johannesburg are not operating due to labour-related issues between Piotrans and its employees.
Rea Vaya released a statement on Wednesday morning through its official X.com account (formerly known as Twitter) communicating that Rea Vaya busses are not operating on the day because the exit point of the Dobsonville depot has been blocked due to labour-related issues between Piotrans and its employees.
Depot exit point blocked
“Rea Vaya passengers are informed that busses are NOT (sic) operating today due to labour related issues between Piotrans and its employees. The exit point of the depot has been blocked and all busses cannot operate. We apologise and advise passengers to use alternative transport,” read the post on X.com.
Piotrans is the operating company contracted to Rea Vaya.
Piotrans busses operate the route from Soweto to Ellis Park. Another bus operating company contracted to Rea Vaya is Litsamaiso (Pty) Ltd, which covers the Soweto to Johannesburg CBD route via Auckland Park.
Rea Vaya has a total of 240 busses from both companies.
Business rescue
Last month, Piotrans, which operates Rea Vaya, was placed under business rescue.
Thereafter, Mahier Tayob took over as the business rescue practitioner and the Rea Vaya board was dissolved.
This is not the fist time that Rea Vaya bus drivers have downed tools due to labour-related issues with Piotrans.
In March, bus drivers from Piotrans downed their tools by blocking all the entrances to the Dobsonville depot with busses, demanding that they be paid their February 2023 salaries. This resulted in busses not running for one day.
The drivers resumed operations the following day after Rea Vaya paid them their outstanding salaries. This came after City of Johannesburg MMC for transport Kenny Kunene intervened and had a meeting with the bus drivers and workers’ union representatives in order to persuade the drivers to go back to work.
