Late payments to fuel suppliers leave Tshwane bus commuters stranded
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said delays were caused by a change in the payment system, which had been addressed by Tuesday
Image: Tshwane media team
From time to time hundreds of Tshwane bus commuters are stranded without transport because of the municipality’s recurring problems with fuel providers.
On Monday, Tshwane metro announced a disruption of the bus services for Tuesday, citing fuel shortages. The problems occur due to service providers being paid late.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the delays were caused by a change in the payment system, which had been addressed by Tuesday.
“We had a migration process from SAP [which deals with among other things payment of service providers] to S4HANA system so we experienced snags with the new one, hence the delay in paying the fuel service providers. We have since reverted to SAP and we have paid the service provider,” he explained.
To mitigate the transportation problems, Mashigo said, Tshwane used available buses and transported commuters from high-volume areas. Two commuters who TimesLIVE spoke to confirmed this.
Mashigo said three depots ran out of diesel and buses were operating at just over 50% of normal capacity.
Mashigo said bus operations resumed partially at minimal capacity from Tuesday afternoon. The municipality did not indicate when full operations would resume.
Gauteng South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) secretary Mpho Tladinyane told TimesLIVE the union was concerned about the fuel shortages, saying should they worsen it could affect other departments and service delivery.
Tladinyane said fuel shortages were caused by service providers not being paid on time.
“Service providers have resorted to withholding services until they are paid, that is the challenge the metro is facing,” he said.
He said workers who have to go out, including those cutting grass and those responding to electricity outages, are affected when there are problems with fuel supply.
“All of this indicates the serious challenge we face as a municipality. The AG’s report says to us that indeed Tshwane is in a financial mess. We hope service providers get paid so that operations are smooth, including delivering of fuel.”
Tladinyane said when diesel does not get delivered all depots are affected. However, the metro said only TBS had been affected so far.
“You will find that in other depots there is a limited amount of fuel that can sustain operations for a few days,” Tladinyane said.
This was not the first time the metro has experienced fuel problems. In September last year, Tshwane bus commuters suffered when operations were halted by fuel shortages.
This was the same in July, when A Re Yeng Bus services in Tshwane were suspended for a week because of fuel shortages.
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.