Great confusion was sparked by a voice note doing the rounds on social media yesterday (20 November).
In the voice note a woman, who clearly sounds traumatised, claimed that she had just been on a bus on which every passenger was robbed by gun-wielding thugs. In the note she also said that the bus was en route to Westgate Shopping Centre.
When the Record phoned Metrobus spokesperson, Goodwill Shivuri to get clarity on the incident, he said he was “aware of it and investigating”. This created the impression that such an incident actually took place. Only later did it transpired that the incident in actual fact took place in the Western Cape on a bus to the Westgate Shopping Centre in Mitchell’s Plain.
Shivuri released a press statement on the issue this morning in which he wrote, “Johannesburg Metrobus Company has noted with regret that an unproven recording circulating on social media projecting a robbery inside the bus is creating unnecessary panic among commuters.
“Metrobus is distancing itself from the recording, because it has no knowledge of the incident on record to date. Scheduled shifts are continuing to operate normally in all depots as per the timetables.
“Metrobus would like to encourage commuters and all relevant stakeholders to continue using our buses as planned. There has not been any reported incident of a criminal nature to our buses nor the depots in recent times. Robbery at gunpoint is a criminal offence, which requires police intervention – Metrobus will not hesitate to inform the relevant authorities, should such incident occur in and around its facilities.
“We once again want to take this opportunity to apologise to all affected commuters and stakeholders for the confusion caused by the audio recording”.
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