Minister of Transport Dullah Omar has bowed to pressure from the taxi industry and delayed for four years the deadline by which taxi operators have to submit to new safety regulations.
The pressure put on Omar represents a turnaround in the views of the taxi industry body, which had previously called for the programme of recaptitalisation and regulation to speed up.
Sicelo Mabaso, chairperson of the National Taxi Alliance and taxi operator Top Six, told the Mail & Guardian the government’s industry partner, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), had been forced to change its tune, because the Santaco-affiliated KwaZulu-Natal Taxi Council was threatening a breakaway.
The government’s taxi recapitalisation programme was in jeopardy until Omar announced the postponement of the deadlines, a prominent member of the taxi industry told the M&G.
Omar said minibus taxi operators will now have at least four years to start complying with basic safety regulations.
According to Mabaso, Santaco was facing a mutiny by its members that was endangering the whole taxi recapitalisation programme.
Members of Santaco were threatening to boycott the programme because they would not be able to afford the new taxis by 2006, the previous deadline. Santaco is the national representative of the taxi industry in South Africa and a key player in the taxi recapitalisation programme.
The programme envisages safer transport for South Africa’s taxi-users by replacing about 97 000 ageing minibus taxis with 18- and 35-seater vehicles. The programme will formalise the sector by regulating taxi fares and the labour conditions of drivers.
Mabaso says Santaco had no alternative but to call for the programme to be slowed down in order to improve communication with its members and prevent a mass exodus of its provincial affiliates.
Jeremy Cronin, the parliamentary transport committee chairperson, said the minister’s announcement on Monday reflects delays in the programme. But he says there is ”new vigour” in the Department of Transport, and the extension of deadlines for taxis to comply with safety regulations does not mean taxi recapitalisation has been derailed.
”This is a very complex process, and when we first started out in 2000, we could not imagine half the challenges we would come across.”
He said the committee was worried from the start about the affordability of the new taxis.
”We have urged government to think carefully about the prices of the new vehicles,” he said. The committee also recommended that the deadline to meet the required safety features in the programme be extended.
Earlier Santaco accused the government of holding up the taxi recapitalisation programme and called for speedier implementation.
Thomas Muofhe, president of Santaco, appealed to the government at a press conference a year ago to hasten the recapitalisation process, because it was ”leaving taxi operators in a catch-22 situation”.
”We can’t expect our members to buy brand-new vehicles that will be out of service in 2006,” he said. ”We are waiting for the new vehicles to be released.”
Last month the KwaZulu-Natal Taxi Council won an urgent high court interdict to stop the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the government and Santaco, less than an hour before it was due to take place. The council argued that its members had not seen the contents of the agreement.
Mabaso said pressure was also mounting in other provinces, and Santaco had to cover itself in order not be ”demonised by its own members”.
”The taxi councils in the different provinces were also threatening to start their own organisation, in opposition to Santaco.
”On paper Santaco is supposed to present the voice of the people. But the organisation has crossed floors. It is speaking the language of the government and not the language of the operators it is supposed to represent.”
Mabaso says the industry is celebrating the government’s decision, but that serious questions remain about how taxi operators will be able to afford the new taxis, even with the extended deadline.
”Affordability has been a problem for the normal taxi operator from the start. They are struggling to even buy the normal taxis they are using at the moment. Now the government wants them to buy bigger, more expensive taxis. It is just not viable.”
Muofhe said in a statement that the minister’s announcement is good news for the taxi industry.
”This is a victory for common sense and negotiations,” Muofhe said, adding that ”the announcement brings an end to the confusion and uncertainties within the industry. Operators will now have more time to secure financing as well.”
He told reporters the differences between Santaco and the KwaZulu-Natal Taxi Council had been resolved through a number of meetings.