STEVEN MANN, Cape Town | Friday 4.00pm.
MORE than 2000 angry Kayelitsha residents marched on Parliament on Friday, demanding an end to months of taxi violence which has claimed at least two lives.
A dispute between taxi drivers and the Golden Arrow bus company over who controls routes from Kayelitsha and other suburbs has grown increasingly acrimonious over recent days.
On Thursday, bus driver Johnny Mtati was shot in the chest as he drove his bus through the streets of Nyanga township. Ten buses had their windows smashed. In a separate incident, a taxi driver was shot dead in Gugulethu.
Last month a bus driver was shot dead.
On Friday morning angry commuters stoned taxis on the outskirts of Kayelitsha, and police dispersed them with stun grenades.
Peter Abrahams, a union representative for Golden Arrow bus drivers, who joined in the march to Parliament, said: “I would say they [the taxi drivers] are trying to make more money. It’s getting very dangerous. We have had enough.”
For weeks bus drivers have refused to enter Kayelitsha, stopping on a heavily policed bridge outside the township to collect commuters.
“I pay R139 [a month] for Golden Arrow, but I must still pay a taxi. We only want Golden Arrow,” said one angry woman, who declined to give her name.
The commuter say bus fares are a third of those charged by the taxis.