The residents of Vleifontein Township and neighbouring Maila village recently welcomed the new bus company in the area.

Government appointed a new bus company, Do Light Transport, that started operating in the area from October 1. This comes after the residents staged several protest actions against the GM Phadziri & Sons bus company that was operating in the area.

They had accused the Phadziris of not taking commuters seriously ,alleging that they arrived late at and from work every day. They added that with the new bus company, Do Light Transport, they believed that things would be different. "Gone are those days when we used to receive written warnings from our employers for arriving late at work. The new bus company provided us with new buses, unlike the Phadziri ones, some of which were not in good condition," said Mashudu Mudau, one of the commuters.

She said that the Phadziris, who were operating the only bus company in the area, were very relaxed and did not care about the commuters, even though they had lodged complaints several times.

The Do Light Transport has provided commuters with seven new buses. According to the spokesperson for Do Light Transport, Mr Patrick Mapengo, the company is ready to assist the commuters. He promised that whatever problems commuters were experiencing before the company came to the area would be addressed. "We have seven new buses in the area and we are assuring that the transport problem in the area is now a thing of the past," he said.

Asked if only seven buses would cope with the number of commuters in the area, Mapengo said the company had one bus on standby, which would also be used if the number of commuters outnumbered the allocated buses.

The war of words now remains between the GM Phadziri Bus Company and the commuters in the Sinthumule and Kutama areas, which has 17 villages. The residents in these two areas have also been fighting with the company for years now. They say that they no longer want the company to operate in the two areas. Several meeting were held at the Makhado Municipality to try to resolve the matter, but to no avail.

The HOD of Transport in Limpopo, Mr Tau Letebele, intervened but the problem has remained unsolved. This has forced commuters in the area to resort to travelling by truck and bakkie as the only option. It is, however, a challenge as it poses a serious risk to their lives to travel at the back of the trucks to and from work every day. Commuters say they are tired of the bus company as well. They say that the GM Phadziri buses are unroadworthy, which makes them arrive late at work. Several buses of the same GM Phadziri & Sons bus company were impounded during provincial traffic road blocks, which highlights the fact that most of the buses are not roadworthy.

Although contacted several times, the manager of the GM Phadziri & Sons Bus Company, Mr Tshikume Phadziri, was not available for comment.