Marianne Merten
A key suspect behind the Cape transport conflict is a known taxi strongman who escaped trial in 1998 for multiple attempted murders and assaults after one witness was killed and others refused to testify.
This had been the 13th time since 1993 that charges against Victor Sam, then secretary gene-ral of the Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata), were dropped. In February 1995 21 counts, including murder and attempted murder, were withdrawn and shortly thereafter other charges related to the kidnapping and murder of two men.
Senior Western Cape police sources this week confirmed they believe Sam is a major player in the conflict between taxi operators and the Golden Arrow bus company.
The most recent attacks – three ambushes between last Thursday and Monday which left one person dead and 24 others injured – took place after taxi bosses met several times at Sam’s tavern in the township. The shootings all happened within running distance of the tavern.
Five people – a passenger, two bus drivers, a bus inspector and a taxi driver – have been killed and scores injured in the 15-week dispute. Several buses have been stoned and set alight.
Sam was brought to court in January 1998 by the special presidential taxi task team, established to put behind bars the top taxi warlords. He had been arrested in the Eastern Cape after investigators had traced him through bank withdrawals. At the time Sam was out on bail on another murder charge, while charges of armed robbery and murder related to a R1-million robbery in 1993 at Engcobo, Transkei, were also pending.
In February 1998 Sam was released on R10 000 bail after he told the Bellville Magi-strate’s Court he was falsely accused while trying to “make peace” between Cata and its rival, the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta). Since the charges were withdrawn Sam has kept a low profile.
At this stage police have also identified the supplier – whose name is known to the Mail & Guardian – of the R4- rifles used in the recent attacks. At least two of the alleged hitmen may be in hiding in a small Boland town.
Codeta and Cata – which for years have hired hit-squads to attack each other – at the end of March joined forces to demand Golden Arrow cut its service during the week and stop over weekends. Taxis compete with the buses for regular commuters. While the taxis charge R5 for the trip of about 40km, a single bus trip using the subsidised 10-ride clip card costs R4,40. The cash fare on buses is R10,80, but cheaper off-peak prices are available.
For years taxi operators fined people who hired buses for funerals and attacked undertakers. Private minibus taxis transporting pupils or shift workers are frequently attacked in an attempt by taxi associations to secure these lucrative contracts.
“It’s extortion,” said a source close to the taxi industry. “They can do it because they have always done it.”
The violence has exposed fraught relations between the national and provincial government on how to stop the attacks. Western Cape politicians have repeatedly blamed the national government for failing to end the violence.
Provincial authorities have yet to respond to offers to help negotiate an end to the conflict by the Khayelitsha Safety Forum, an umbrella body of community organisations.
Minister of Transport Abdullah Omar’s representative Mike Mabasa said: “We are all puzzled. We don’t know why the provincial government is not acting. They have, in our view, all they need.”