By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
4 February 2025- The North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Wessels Morweng, has called for in-depth investigations into the cause of a fire that broke out at the North West Transport Investment (NTI). The fire, which was discovered in the early hours of Monday morning at a sleeping ground in Moretele village, destroyed nine buses at a go.
Morweng said NTI management have opened a case with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and further investigations will determine the circumstances around the cause of the fire as well as the extent of the damage. He also expressed dismay at the unfortunate turn of events at the entity.
“We have recently turned a new leaf with our intervention at the entity by addressing the leadership instability experienced for some time now. We have also ensured that employees received their salaries as promised.
“Therefore, we believe that we have made great effort to assist the entity in realising its full potential. This, however, is a set back and overall unfortunate incident,” said Morweng.
He added that, at this point it is unclear whether this was an accident or an act of sabotage, and therefore they make a call to the authorities to deal with the matter decisively. Morweng said the NTI Acting Group CEO, Dr Dikobe and management at the entity has plans in place to limit the impact of services rendered to commuters in and around the Moretele.
“At the same time, the department as a shareholder in the company, will continue to play a supportive role in order to ensure that service delivery is not compromised and that commuters are not left stranded,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Convenor of the Moral Regeneration Movement (MRM) in North West, Pastor Lesiba Kgwele said: “The MRM expressed concern regarding the blaze. The civil society led movement promoting the Charter of Positive Values (CoPV), suggested that the incident that took place could be an atrocious and despicable act of economic sabotage.
“It cannot be a coincidence that we are losing valuable assets and infrastructure across the province to fires. We therefore call on law enforcement agencies not to leave any stone unturned until those responsible are behind bars.”
The Guardian 