EYEWITNESS: Mgcobo Ngxukume
When I arrived at the rank in Umtata I heard a lot of talk about how the terrible taxi war was intensifying. The routes between Umtata, Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown were the worst hit, everyone was saying.
As I was standing there with the other passengers, there was a lot of doubt about whether we should travel. But we all had commitments forcing us to reach our destinations and no other transport was available.
We were waiting to catch an Uncedo (a local taxi association) taxi; the driver told us to wait because he wanted to phone other members of the association along the route to find out what our chances were of getting through.
Eventually our driver got through to King William’s Town — he was told to make the trip but to be alert for attacks.
We were delayed for several hours before we eventually started the journey. Some of my fellow passengers were very nervous. They wanted the police to escort us, but no protection was available.
Our anxiety reached a peak when we heard over the radio that five people were killed that day at Engcobo — we were to travel the same route.
The taxi driver accelerated hard and, with perspiration dripping down his face, told me how he narrowly escaped death the previous day.
He said he was travelling his usual route the day before when he saw a Border Alliance taxi behind him. The driver wanted to force him off the road and he saw machine guns being kept ready in the rear of the vehicle.
He only managed to escape by driving at a suicidally high speed.
My trip to Grahamstown was not pleasant. We kept looking around for potential attackers and the taxi travelled at high speed on those little roads so that possible assailants could not catch us easily.
A traffic officer tried to stop us, but we sped away — we thought he might be one of these angry killers. He came out with his arms waving. When I looked back he was still waving both arms.”
The driver told everyone in the taxi that taxi gangsters often dress up as traffic officers to stop rival taxis. Then they butcher everyone in sight.
As we were desperate, most of us kept praying to God loudly and constantly throughout the trip and we thanked God for keeping us safe all the way from Umtata to Grahamstown. — Ecna