The taxi industry will soon be part of the government’s public-transport subsidy system, Transport Minister Jeff Radebe said on Thursday.
Radebe said more than 60% of South Africa’s people used taxis.
”We need to support our taxi industry,” he said in Thaba Nchu in the Free State.
The minister witnessed the issuing of shares by one of the Free State’s biggest bus companies, Interstate Bus Lines (IBL), to shareholders as part of a new black economic empowerment deal.
Taxi operators and small bus owners are part of the empowerment deal and now are co-owners in the state-subsidised IBL.
IBL spokesperson Quinton Eister said the new deal put 63% of the company in black hands.
No transformation of the transport industry could occur without the development of the taxi industry. The empowerment deal could be a model for the rest of South Africa.
”We have proved the sceptics wrong who said it was not possible to bring competitors together in one company,” said Eister.
Radebe said his department was happy with the IBL deal.
”It adheres to the code of good governance set by the government. The taxi industry is involved in the deal, therefore we are glad.”
The country needed more such partnerships.
”The IBL deal is a step in the right direction. Let us see more IBLs in South Africa, which includes the bus, taxi and small bus operators,” Radebe said. — Sapa