FRIDAY, 2.30PM
The minibus taxi industry should be smashed and rebuilt, according to Elias Mosunkutu, chairman of the Gauteng public transport standing committee.
Mosunkutu made the statement after the province was accused of being ruthless in amending the Road Transportation Act to force taxi operators to register and obtain route permits by Lennox Mabaso of the provincial transport and roads department during a committee meeting.
Mosunkutu said the law changes were intended to be ruthless, in order to stop the daily killings and violence in the industry. He added: “I think we must smash the entire thing and rebuild it from the bottom.”
The provincial transport department on Wednesday began the confiscation phase of its Operation Thiba. A long process led to taxi associations being registered and to route permits being issued, but many operators have ignored the process and their taxis are now being seized.
“The industry is very angry with us,” chief director of transportation management Eric Wise told the committee. “This is because now we are really regulating and the shoe is starting to pinch. We are not saying ‘We are going to get rid of illegals’, we are getting rid of illegals.”
Wise said one of the department’s concerns is that its officials are daily threatened with death by people in the taxi industry. “They say ‘Give me a sticker [stickers to indicate registration and permits]. I know who you are, I know where you stay’. And now that we are starting with the confiscation phase they are saying, ‘Stop me, take my vehicle, I’ll kill you’. It’s as easy as that.”
Figures provided by Wise show there are 25 321 outright illegal taxis in Gauteng and 9 396 semi-legals (they belong to registered taxi associations, but don’t have route permits).
Twenty-one illegal minibus taxis were on Wednesday confiscated in the Pretoria townships of Soshanguve, Ga-Rankuwa and Mabopane by police and traffic officials. Gauteng transport department representative Kate Bapela said the vehicles will be kept at the Odi military base near Mabopane for 14 days. The taxi owners will be charged an administrative fee of R500, which will double if the taxis are found on the road again.