Durban's municipal bus service is set to resume after an agreement was reached between striking bus drivers and the municipality, a worker's representative said on Friday.

Rydill Pillay said drivers were expected to be back at work by Sunday and that the service should be fully operational by Monday, ending a strike that has left the city without a municipal bus service for the past five weeks.

Pillay said the eThekwini Municipality had in principle agreed to include workers in discussions that could lead to the drivers being employed by the municipality.

John Mchunu, the African National Congress eThekwini secretary general, confirmed that a deal had been reached.

Remant Alton operations manager Paul Rush expected the service to be fully operational by Monday. He said the workers would become party to all discussions and negotiations affecting public transport and the municipality.

Full details of the agreement were expected to be released later.

Remant Alton won the bid to operate the service after the city privatised it. The company had to take over the service as well as employ the bus drivers.

Earlier this year the municipality decided to buy back the buses, but no commitment had been made to rehire the drivers. Remant Alton This resulted in an illegal strike and resulted in Remant Alton dismissing 937 employees on 29 September. Of those, 810 were bus drivers — the company's entire complement of drivers.

Sapa