Commuters beat up conductor

A COMMUTER omnibus conductor was on Saturday beaten by passengers when he refused to give them refunds when the kombi they were travelling in was involved in an accident before they reached their destination.

According to witnesses, the commuter omnibus was travelling from town towards Luveve when it rear-ended a taxi that was stationary at the intersection of Siyepambili Drive and Luveve Road.

After the accident, passengers from the commuter omnibus asked the conductor to refund them so that they could proceed with their journey while the kombi crew attended to the accident.

The witness said pandemonium broke when the conductor told them that he was not going to refund them.

"Immediately after the kombi had stopped, we asked the conductor to give us back our monies so that we could look for alternative transport while they (commuter omnibus crew) attended to the accident. The conductor refused and at first we thought he was joking," said Mr Noel Ncube, one of the passengers.

When the conductor insisted that there would be no refunds, one of the passengers suddenly grabbed him by the neck.

"The altercation ensued into a fistfight before other passengers joined in," said another passenger.

When this reporter arrived at the scene, the fight had stopped and the conductor who had a swollen face was making refunds to the passengers.