Bus company, Putco, says it is ready to resume full operations on Monday following an arson attack at its various depots in Mpumalanga a week ago.

According to police a group of unknown armed suspects targeted several depots in the province, setting 51 buses alight.

The motive for the attack is not clear, however, investigations are continuing.

“When this arson attack happened, we had to go back to the drawing board, and we were already trying to build a pool fleet so that whenever there are disruptions, we are able to respond. And fortunately, we were able to allocate 51 new buses that are going to go into the area of Mpumalanga. They are going to be servicing the people of Mpumalanga and replace the buses that burnt. It is a setback for the company, we were building a pool and trying to continue with our bus replacement programme to replace the old fleet with the new one. But we are ready to operate on Monday,” says Putco Spokesperson, Lindokuhle Xulu.

VIDEO| Police are confident that more arrests will follow.

The bus company says it has tightened security at its depots in Mpumalanga.

“It has led us to up the ante in terms of putting security at our depots. There’s extra security even on the routes that we operate. What we’re basically doing is patrolling those areas, but police are also doing the same in terms of guarding some of the routes we are operating on – especially the Moloto road which is where these buses would be travelling on a normal operation. So, it is heightened security and we are making sure that our passengers as well as our drivers are safe. While we operate, we are on tenterhooks and anything that happens – we’ll be able to respond swiftly and make sure that passengers are safe.”

VIDEO | Police have been on high alert since the torching of the buses.