Taxi industry to take to the skies (heaven help us)

The taxi industry wants to expand into other transport modes including buses, trains and even aircraft, the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) said on Wednesday.

“We will be launching a low-cost airline,” Nkululeko Buthelezi, business development officer for Santaco, told potential investors and reporters in Johannesburg.

“I can see some of you rolling your eyes because of how our taxi drivers drive… I can assure you we won’t allow our taxi drivers to drive [the planes].” He said the new airline would be officially unveiled on September 16 and envisaged it would take to the skies by November.

Buthelezi said the routes Santaco was looking at—such as Lanseria to Bisho—made sense for their customers, who often made a 14-hour road trip for a funeral and had to return five hours later.

Ahead of the World Cup in 2010, taxi organisations signalled their opposition to the bus rapid transit system, saying it would cause job losses. - Sapa