The strike grounding Durban's municipal bus service is set to enter its fifth consecutive week on Monday with no agreement in sight, despite the fact that the municipality has joined the negotiations.

Remant Alton operations manager Paul Rush said on Friday he had hoped that the municipality's involvement would have brought about a solution.

"We really hoped that their involvement would bring about a breakthrough," he said.

Remant Alton bus drivers embarked on illegal protest action, leading to the dismissal of 937 employees on 29 September. Of those, 810 were bus drivers — the company's entire complement of drivers.

The workers are demanding that they be employed by the eThekwini Municipality, alleging financial mismanagement within the bus service.

Remant Alton won the contract to run the city's bus service in 2003.

Meanwhile, Metro Rail spokesperson Thandi Mkhize said that the city's commuter trains had been packed, especially on the city's KwaMashu and Umlazi lines.

Those two lines alone had seen an increase of 8000 commuters daily.

The service transports an average of 190 000 people every day.

She urged commuters to exercise caution and not to overload coaches or to move between coaches.

Sapa