Well-known South African company hit by ‘terrorist attacks’

Intercape CEO Johann Ferreira said a low-level war with the taxi industry has escalated into full-scale terrorist attacks threatening South Africans’ lives.

Ferreira said Intercape now faces consistent terrorist attacks, and the South African Police Service (SAPS) refuses to take action.

He alleged that the South African taxi industry has close ties with influential politicians, who protect the people behind the attacks on his company.

Intercape is Southern Africa’s largest bus operator and a vital transport service provider used by millions of South Africans.

The company was founded by Johan Ferreira in 1971 with a single bus. It grew rapidly, and by 1976, it had expanded to five buses.

In 1979, Ferreira started a second passenger bus company in Cape Town and called it Intercape, operating a shuttle service between the Cape Town airport and the City Centre.

In 1986, Intercape applied for and obtained intercity permits for transporting passengers between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.

In 2008, Johann Ferreira Junior, who had joined the company in 1986, acquired 100% of Intercape’s shares from the Ferreira family trust and took over its management.

Ferreira was highly experienced and had all the necessary skills to run the transportation company, which had been in his family for decades.

However, he was not prepared for what followed. In 2016, taxi operators began to question the validity of Intercape’s bus permits on specific routes.

They held meetings with local authorities and the provincial regulatory entities responsible for issuing permits. Everything was in order, and Intercape continued with its services.

What followed was a low-level war, which escalated and ended with what Ferreira described as terrorist attacks.

“When the taxi bosses saw they could not legally stop Intercape, they went underground and started attacking the buses,” he said.

He told Kyknet’s Lourensa Eckard that it started with victimising the drivers and the passengers and throwing stones at buses.

When this did not work, they escalated their actions, which included shooting at the Intercape buses on specific routes.

“They assaulted the drivers and passengers, stopping buses at the bus stations in the Eastern Cape and pulling passengers from the buses, armed with guns,” he said.

Ferreira said it ended with full-scale terrorism. “It escalated to a point where a driver was murdered and many passengers were injured,” he explained.

The police did not take decisive action

What is particularly concerning is that the South African Police Service (SAPS) made no effort to arrest anyone despite 200 pending cases.

Ferreira explained that they could not take legal action against the taxi industry, as it is impossible to find the bosses behind the scenes.

“You don’t get a real address. You don’t get a real name. Nothing is real. Everything is underground and undercover,” he said.

Instead, the company requested that the police address these issues. However, they found that the police were unwilling to act against the perpetrators.

“We opened cases and got a case number. However, after that, there was no action from the police,” he said.

They have also called out the police when their buses were attacked. They would either not come out, or when they did, they were unwilling to intervene.

“They refuse to arrest anyone who attacked an Intercape bus. There has not been a single arrest in all our cases,” he said.

This is despite passengers being forced to exit the buses by criminals using automatic rifles and employees being driven out of their offices through violent means.

In one case, the criminals held a Cape Town station hostage for 4 hours. However, the police only acted as observers.

“They held me hostage and threatened me for 8 hours in East London using AK-47 assault rifles. They wanted to eliminate Intercape,” he said.

To try to address the police’s inaction, Intercape approached the courts to force the law enforcement agencies to act.

On 10 July 2024, Intercape announced that it had won its fifth court battle over this matter, including cases against the Police and Transport Minister.

However, this also came to nothing. They continued to launch successful legal action and have contested nine court cases. “We won all the cases with costs,” Ferreirsa said.

Despite numerous court orders, the problems persist. “At this stage, the state is in contempt of court,” the Intercape CEO said.

• The court ordered the police and the Department of Transport to develop a plan to protect Intercape and report back to the court and the company. This did not happen.

• The court also ordered the police to investigate cases and arrest perpetrators. They also did not do that.

“That means the police are in contempt of court on two counts, and the Department of Transport is in contempt of court on one count,” he said.

Ferreira blamed President Cyril Ramaphosa for the lack of action. He alleged that Ramaphosa supports the taxi industry, which stops organs of state from doing their work.

“It is unthinkable that the government would expose their citizens to terrorism and do nothing about it. This is what the court said,” Ferreira said.

He equated it to human rights abuses and said he is not going to drop this issue. “The government should protect its citizens,” he said.

Intercape goes to parliament

On Wednesday, 14 May 2025, Intercape appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Police to urge the police to take action to halt the ongoing acts of violence and intimidation.

The Portfolio Committee, chaired by Ian Cameron of the DA, heard evidence of “attacks on long-haul bus operations” and the police’s lack of response to the crisis.

Advocate Kate Hofmeyr told the committee that the attacks against Intercape were severe and that the SAPS’ response was inadequate.

The financial toll on Intercape has been significant, causing millions in damages.

• It has covered medical bills for injured passengers amounting to over R420,000.
• It was forced to suspend services in certain towns in the Eastern Cape, resulting in lost revenue of over R30 million.
• It incurred over R3 million in additional expenditure for private security escorts.
• It spent nearly R5.5 million on repair costs for damaged coaches.

Intercape said the rot runs much deeper than just the police’s inability to get a handle on the violence and intimidation directed against its operations.

The company says the government does not respect the rule of law and is in breach of its Constitutional obligations.