Thirty-hour journey of hell

SA Roadlink passengers are furious after a hellish 30-hour journey that saw exhausted men, women and babies being loaded into five different buses to get home.

The trip from Johannesburg to Mthatha, which usually takes 13 hours, turned into a nightmare.

Eskom employee Rudy Marillier, his girlfriend Ziyanda and their baby Rozelle were on the ill-fated trip after a holiday in Johannesburg with his sister Roelien.

"I had to leave because I had to start working on Monday. I had no choice but to use Roadlink because the other buses were fully booked," Rudy said.

The family expected to leave Park Station in Johannesburg at 6.45pm last Sunday, but a "mechanical fault" caused delays. "Eventually, they boarded the bus at about 8pm.

"But then they were told to get out because there were problems with that vehicle. A second bus came, a white bus without SA Roadlink branding," said Roelien.

Soon after departing, the second bus had to stop because of headlight problems.

Rudy said a third bus finally continued the journey at 2.15am on Monday.

The third bus was stopped for a roadworthy test at 10.30am in Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal and was impounded because of problems with its tyres, brakes and wipers.

Passenger Nompumelelo Meji said: "It was raining and the wipers were not working. The sunroof couldn't close either ."

Afraid of losing her job, passenger Nomvuyo Kaleng hitchhiked to Kokstad, where she arrived at work at 3pm.

Meanwhile, a fourth bus also failed a roadworthy test .

Passengers then boarded a fifth bus, which left Ixopo just after 8pm and arrived in Mthatha in the early hours of Tuesday .

Roadlink boss Allan Reddy said if people felt they "need to be refunded", they should contact Roadlink offices.

He claimed that the trip to Mthatha was not scheduled.

"I was trying to help them get to their destination and hired a contracted bus."

But the passengers interviewed by the Sunday Times said this was untrue.