085 A Roadlink bus at their depo in City Deep, Joburg. 141009. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu 085 A Roadlink bus at their depo in City Deep, Joburg. 141009. Picture: Bongiwe Mchunu
Durban - The fate of embattled bus company, SA Roadlink – which has not had a bus on the road for the past six months – will be known in April, its chief executive, Allan Reddy, said yesterday.
The intercity bus company, which has been in the cross-hairs of traffic authorities for its unroadworthy vehicles and a number of deadly crashes, was forced to apply for business rescue more than 15 months ago after falling into massive debt.
In June it stopped its nationwide bus operations, closing its offices in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Polokwane.
It came after FirstRand Bank applied for a liquidation order in the Johannesburg High Court in 2013, claiming the bus company was in a “dire financial position and unable to pay its debts”.
Roadlink allegedly owed the bank R6 million after it bought five buses – each costing R1.08m – in 2011, and was R1.4m in arrears on the payments.
While Roadlink denied allegations that it was insolvent, it applied for business rescue in September 2013.
According to a report in Business Day at the time, Roadlink filed for business rescue because it was “reasonably unlikely to pay all its debts as they become due and was likely to be insolvent in six months”.
However, Reddy said yesterday the company had settled all its debts and he hoped that business would resume in April.
Asked why the company had closed its office and suspended operations, he said it was the decision of the business rescue practitioner.
“I am not sure why they did what they did. We are not in control. It was the business rescue guys (who made these decisions).
“We did not know how the business rescue guys operated (when we filed for business rescue). We thought they would come in for one month, two months, fix things up and go. But they have been here for a long, long time,” Reddy said.
He said he was due to meet the business rescue practitioner by April with the aim of getting the business back. He said all the buses were parked at the depots.
“I am not at liberty to say things because it is not in my control. What I can say is that the banks have been settled and we will discuss these issues further in March or April.”
Dawie van der Merwe, who has been appointed the business rescue practitioner for Roadlink, refused to comment yesterday.
Roadlink has a long history of being in the spotlight for defective buses, shoddy service and crashes that have claimed the lives of 35 people since 2006. In 2012, Western Cape officials vowed to stop every Roadlink bus that entered the province to check for roadworthiness.
This came about after a former employee claimed the company had been forging roadworthy certificates for its vehicles.
In 2008 the company was banned from operating on KwaZulu-Natal roads by then transport MEC Bheki Cele who called the buses a “killing machine” and “coffin on wheels”.
The buses returned after the company threatened legal action.
In 2010, Transport MEC Willies Mchunu announced Operation Shanela, deploying an enforcement unit to ensure that no Roadlink bus left its depot without a pre-trip inspection, saying that “experience and the body of evidence” pointed to Roadlink as the country’s worst public transport provider.
Daily News