A young woman stood up to an “aggressive” bus driver last Thursday after she was disgusted by what she described as his racist treatment of an African family.
Lawyer Yanika Bugeja, 25, was on her way to Valletta on bus number 55, when an immigrant couple and their child attempted to board the bus.
“You’re going to have to catch another bus if you have a baby,” the driver said, according to Dr Bugeja.
Oblivious to what they had been told, the couple made their way onto the bus anyway and other passengers made space for the woman to sit down with her baby.
The man sat down near the driver, with the baby’s pushchair in hand, and offered him a €5 note for the fare.
“The driver complained about being given a €5 note and after finding enough change slammed it into the man’s hands,” Dr Bugeja said, adding she immediately knew things would escalate.
As soon as the man sat down, the driver started shouting at him, according to Dr Bugeja.
“Wake up for the lady,” he said, in broken English, pointing to a woman who had been standing for the past 10 minutes.
The woman said she was getting off at the next stop and did not need to sit down.
The driver responded by striking the pushchair, prompting the man to get up and move away from the driver, standing behind his seat so as not to be in the way.
Immediately, the driver warned him not to touch his seat and ordered him to go to the back of the bus.
“The man did not know how to react. When we reached the traffic lights and the bus was stationary the driver got up and started to push him to the back of the bus,” Dr Bugeja said.
That’s when she got up and told him to stop treating the man in that manner or else she would file a police report. The driver dared her to do so, pointing out that his father was a police inspector.
“He told me not to get involved but I said I would only stop shouting unless he stopped treating human beings like trash. He replied by saying that immigrants were trash.”
Eventually the driver stopped the bus in Msida where he saw a traffic policeman. He got off to complain that a woman was giving him abuse.
Dr Bugeja immediately followed him to tell her side of the story and the two were told to go to a police station to file a report.
Together with a witness she went straight to the nearest police station to file a report. The driver also went to the station but he was turned away to continue with his trip.
“Later the police called me to say he had apologised. I said I did not believe his apology but that I was ready not to pursue the case if they gave him a stern warning.
“It’s a waste of my time and money to go to court but I just want bus drivers to realise this behaviour is not acceptable. He acted the way he did simply because they were black. I wonder what sort of jungle tourists make of Malta when they see such things.”