SIX people have been arrested after about 20 buses belonging to Buscor were set on fire at Daantjie near Nelspruit.

SIX people have been arrested after about 20 buses belonging to Buscor were set on fire at Daantjie near Nelspruit.

KaNyamazane police spokesperson Inspector Andries Shikwambane said yesterday the police had rounded up people suspected of being responsible for the arson from Tuesday morning until yesterday morning.

Sowetan has established that the arrested people were former employees of Buscor, who were fired for engaging in an unprotected wage strike.

The buses were set alight on Tuesday morning.

But Shikwambane could not confirm or deny whether the arrested people were former employees of the bus company or not.

"I can't confirm whether these suspects ever worked for the bus company or not," Shikwambane said. "All I can confirm at present is that we have arrested six people who are suspects in the burning of the buses."

Yesterday morning the suspects were still being interrogated.

Shikwambane said it was not likely that they would be taken to court yesterday.

He said the police had the legal right to keep them for 48 hours before taking them to court.

"There is a possibility that the suspects might be taken to court tomorrow," he said. "Detectives are still busy with them."

Meanwhile, Buscor spokesperson John Ngombe yesterday confirmed that a number of employees had been fired from the company after they took part in an "unprotected strike" over salaries.

"I don't know who has been arrested but I can confirm that a number of Buscor employees were fired over the past two weeks because of their engagement in an unprotected strike."

Ngombe said commuters were using alternative buses because out of six bus depots only one was attacked "so there is no crisis".