Algoa Bus Company drivers protested outside the company’s offices in Kosten, Gqeberha, on Tuesday morning.
Dozens of Algoa Bus Company drivers in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality protested outside the company’s offices in Kosten, Gqeberha, on Tuesday morning.
Their main complaint was that drivers were disciplined for not checking whether all passengers pay for using the service. Other issues raised by the drivers included the provision of portable toilets and water while on duty.
“When a bus inspector finds some commuters without tickets onboard, the drivers are punished. It’s not easy to see everyone boarding a bus if it is full. Commuters squeeze past others,” said a driver who asked not to be named.
Protesting drivers were led by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU).
In a statement on Monday, Algoa Bus Company managing director Douglas Govender informed commuters that negotiations had failed and the workers would go on strike.
Company spokesperson Fezekisiwe Keke said the company was doing its best to resolve matters amicably. “We are open to any talks with unions. The costs as a result of the strike are very high. We ferry 70,000 passengers a day,” he said.
Commuters were forced to find other ways to get to their destinations on Tuesday morning. The company operates across Nelson Mandela Bay and surrounding areas, including routes linking Gqeberha, Kariega and Despatch.
Uitenhage and District Taxi Association (UDTA) spokesperson Lubabalo Vesele said additional taxis had been sent out to assist stranded commuters.
He said bus fare was R36 from Kariega to Gqeberha, and UDTA charged R40 for the same route.
Drivers said their protest would continue and urged drivers in other depots to join the strike.
© 2026 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, not tracking users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.
The #EndViolenceAgainstChildren campaign seeks to protect children from violence and exploitation.
Guillotine Trigger
What do you call the oke at a South African gathering who cooks the food?
Braai\’n
Undergrad Split
Fun South African Fact: The world’s largest themed resort hotel in the world – The Palace of the Lost City – is found in South Africa. Surrounding the Palace is a 25 hectare manmade botanical jungle with almost 2 million plants, trees and shrubs.