Dear Minister Mbalula

 As a concerned citizen of South Africa, I write to you with great distress about the closure of Greyhound buses. Greyhound Buses provide sustainable transport. They offer passengers a safe transportation option with low environmental and noise interruption.

Other benefits of Greyhound bus transport include:

· Reduced traffic

Bus transport plays an important role in decongesting the road. Depending on the size, a bus can on average replace 30 cars. This helps to make the roads much safer and ensures more people get to their destination on time and without unnecessary inconveniences on the road.

· Safe

Greyhound Buses are the safest road transport. In fact, its performance is comparable to train. It is very rare to hear buses being involved in accidents and resulting in the death of passengers. This is mainly attributed to the fact that bus drivers are well trained and vetted before they are entrusted with the responsibility of driving company buses. Furthermore, bus drivers understand the grave consequences of dangerous driving, such as overspeeding. They avoid as much as possible jeopardizing lives and undermining their employability, by ensuring they drive carefully. However, unlike trains, a bus does not have a dedicated infrastructure. Therefore, it has to share roads with other vehicles.

· Comfortable

Some buses offer 56 seats while others offer less. Many bus companies seek to offer their customers maximum comfort by fitting first-class leather seats which recline several degrees. The guarantee of a comfortable ride helps to keep passengers away from the long lines at the airport, helping them to utilize their time productively for no extra fees. Some of the buses are fitted with standard 110v, Wi-Fi, and lap desks. These features appeal to many passengers, particularly business travelers who can continue working through the entire trip, for less.

· Cheap

Greyhound buses are a common mode of transport in South Africa. You can get easily to your destination for a fraction of your total transportation cost- you will not have to worry about road rage, petrol prices, or lost productivity. Furthermore, there are several bus companies often operating in a single route at any given time. Therefore, it is possible to get cheap bus tickets for any route. Furthermore, when you shop online you stand to benefit from cheaper tickets.

We would like to state that letting Greyhound buses close down will be a major problem for many South Africans as it takes away our safe way of traveling long distances but also it takes away jobs. We are currently in a pandemic and the employees at Greyhound are now left unemployed and it will be very difficult for them to get employment elsewhere as the percentage of unemployed people has risen. It’s really unfair that the taxi industry and the airline keeps getting bailouts while greyhound was left to die. Is the government bias against other enterprises?. We also drafted this letter as a petition to show you how much we need this mode of transport back.

We hope to receive a response of address soon.

Sincerely,

Concerned citizens