Paul Kirk
A can of coke for R12,50. An 8km taxi ride for R200. These aren’t the prices one can expect in 2050, they were the prices charged and paid in Durban until last weekend.
Within a day after the delegates attending the World Conference against Racism left Durban, prices crashed.
During the conference a taxi fare to Westville, about 8km west of the city, cost delegates anything between R200 and R300.
News of the exorbitant prices being charged for the shortest of taxi rides became public when East Coast Radio’s popular Crime Watch programme received reports of the huge fares being asked.
Many Durbanites were horrified and charged that the fares were criminal. In December, when Durban attracts thousands of Gauteng tourists, the prices of some goods mostly beer and ice cream are inflated. But during the conference rampant profiteering was the order of the day.
One cab driver, who would only give his name as Michael, said as long as South Africa was a democracy he could charge whatever his clients were prepared to pay and he wanted R250 for a drive to Westville.
Michael insisted that delegates from the poorer nations, mostly in Africa and who are the worst affected by racism, were not being ripped off, claiming that most drivers were prepared to negotiate and that drivers of mini-bus taxis were charging more moderate fares.
But for those who did not know that they were expected to haggle, Durban was a huge rip-off. A can of coke cost delegates R12,50 from “Ma” Ngubane who also sold hot dogs a few hundred metres from the International Conference Center.
Like the taxi drivers, she was also unapologetic. Ngubane insisted most of her customers were wealthy Americans and Europeans who regarded her prices as quite acceptable.