The government’s taxi-recapitalisation programme in its current form should be scrapped, taxi owners and drivers demanded in Pretoria on Friday.
Thousands marched to the Union Buildings where they handed a memorandum on the issue to a representative of the Department of Transport.
The memorandum contains several demands, including that a feasibility study be done of the recapitalisation plan, an increase on the R50 000 scrapping allowance, and the lifting of a moratorium on the issuing of new taxi permits and operating licences.
The protesters shoved street vendors out of the way and carried a cardboard coffin with Transport Minister Jeff Radebe’s name on it, and chanted slogans. Some marchers urinated on the cardboard coffin.
Most retail shops had closed and the protesters broke out in a rendition of former deputy president Jacob Zuma’s trademark song Umshini Wam as they made their way to the Union Buildings.
Earlier there were reports of shots being fired across the city, but police were unable to confirm this. Police tow trucks and armoured vehicles were on stand-by. Metro police officers were also handed shotguns with rubber bullets.
A group of taxi drivers reportedly blocked traffic on the N1 north-bound near the Shell Ultra City.
The protest had already caused severe traffic problems in Pretoria and more was to come as protesters were due to march back to the centre of the city.
”All roads leading into the city centre have been blocked by a massive entourage of taxi drivers going in and taxi drivers are ignoring all traffic signals,” said spokesperson Mel Vosloo earlier in the day.
The drivers were also said to be taking up all lanes and moving at a snail’s pace, delaying motorists behind them.
Pretoria police spokesperson Anton Breedt said taxi drivers were seen pelting one of the new recapitalisation taxis with stones in the city centre.
Protests elsewhere
Thousands of commuters were also left without transport in the Cape Peninsula, South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news reported.
Several incidents of stone throwing were reported at Mew Way in Khayelitsha and Du Noon near Table View. A woman was slightly injured at Du Noon and a bus driver was injured when his bus was stoned. Both were taken to hospital.
The taxi rank in Cape Town was deserted, resulting in the bus service struggling to cope.
In Diepsloot, north-west of Johannesburg, taxi drivers burnt tyres on the R511 route and attacked police and emergency-services officials with stones.
Emergency-services spokesperson Malcolm Midgley said police were attacked at 5.30am on Friday by taxi drivers who saw them as a threat to their march. ”No was injured in the incident as contingency plans had been in place to deal with this kinds of problems,” he said.
Other incidents were reported on the M2 highway between Mooi Street and Joe Slovo Drive.
Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar advised motorists not to panic. ”Metro police will take action wherever roads are blocked.”
National Taxi Alliance (NTA) spokesperson Alpheus Mlalazi said an incident involving an attacked taxi was ”an isolated and regrettable one”.
”We have dealt with that but there is nothing to be done about the traffic as the taxi drivers have to get to the meeting place. We are not blocking any roads; we are just driving towards the area were we are to start the march.”
‘Blame the government’
Stranded Johannesburg commuters took buses, some of which were seen to be overloaded. Mlalazi said stranded commuters had no one to blame but the government. ”They have been ignoring us all along, refusing to listen to our pleas,” he said. ”Taxi recapitalisation should be scrapped with immediate effect because it is unaffordable, unrealistic, retrogressive.”
NTA chairperson Sicelo Mabaso said the recapitalisation programme is aimed at ”getting rid” of current taxi operators. ”We are also demanding an immediate stop to the impounding of taxis for permit-related offences caused by the government and its statutory bodies who fail to issue permits.
”We want the government to start consulting with genuine leaders of the taxi industry on matters affecting the industry and to stop liaising with the South African National Taxi Council [Santaco] on our behalf,” Mabaso said.
Santaco, the biggest taxi alliance in the country followed by the NTA, would not participate in the protest action. Spokesperson Thabiso Molelekwa said: ”We do have taxis operating around the country, including Johannesburg and Pretoria. I know for a fact that three-quarters of taxis in Johannesburg are Santaco affiliates.”
He said Santaco was hoping that the NTA march would be peaceful and not disrupt operators who wished to work.
The Transport Department plans to scrap more than 10 000 taxis by December. Owners will receive a R50 000 allowance for each legally registered old minibus taxi scrapped.
But the NTA says the money falls far short of the deposit owners have to pay for new taxis.
In a press release issued by the Department of Transport dated April 10 2006, the government was said to be ”moving swiftly” with the taxi-recapitalisation programme (TRP) and that it had entered a ”critical stage of implementation”.
It said the roll-out strategy recognised that it was not only about the replacement of old vehicles with newer and safer vehicles, but that it represented an opportunity for the government to ”transform, empower and regulate the industry”.
”Attempts to evaluate progress of the TRP on the basis of doubts expressed by certain vehicle manufacturers are not only mischievous and misleading to the public, but reflect lack of appreciation of both the complex nature of the TRP and the significant progress made by government since the adoption by Cabinet of the strategy to roll out the TRP in July 2005,” the department said.