Taxis not happy with hitchhiking

The provincial government has has given hitchhiking the thumbs up. Transport, safety and liaison MEC Weziwe Tikana was addressing taxi and bus owners at a transport stakeholder dialogue in Mthatha on Monday night.

She said people were free to ask for rides on the side of the road so long as municipal by-laws did not forbid it. The MEC said citizens had a constitutional right to use any legal vehicle of their choice.

This did not go down well with some taxi operators, but the Eastern Cape Taxi Council (ECTC) yesterday told the Daily Dispatch they agreed with Tikana.

ECTC president Zanemvula Gaya said: “As the council, we have for years discouraged taxi operators from harassing people who are involved in hitchhiking.

“Yes, the MEC is quite right. It is everyone’s constitutional right to use any transport of his or her choice and nobody should violate that right.”

Tikana called on the taxi industry to be innovative when attracting customers and to restoring confidence in using taxis.

The matter was raised after the Mthatha Taxi Owners’ Association complained during the dialogue about losing millions to motorists charging hikers for a ride.

“If there are no municipal by-laws that are broken by those picking up hitchhikers at a certain spot, nobody has the right to harass the hikers or the driver picking them up,” said Tikana.

“It is bad and immoral to see elderly people crying because they have been harassed by some of us,” said Gaya.

Some motorists were assaulted when they were picking up friends or relatives for no financial gain, said Gaya.

He said a policeman was allegedly shot and killed in Ngcobo when he picked up “his own wife. He had even shown them his ID and that of his wife, but they killed him nonetheless”.

“There are too many cases of assault and harassment of motorists picking up hitchhikers by taxi operators. This must come to a stop,” said Gaya.

He said harassment, intimidation and victimisation of hitchhikers was rife in Mthatha, Ngcobo, Mount Frere, King William’s Town and East London.

Taxi operators and owners had been arrested and jailed for acts of intimidation at hiking spots.

• In August 2014, three taxi drivers were charged with murder following the death of four people in a high-speed chase in June in a dispute with the driver of an Avanza which was picking up hitchhikers which led to the chase.
• In July 2014, taxi operators closed off a road leading to a school in Mount Frere while complaining about teachers opting to use their own cars in lift clubs rather than the taxis;
• In August, an off-duty Mthatha police officer was gunned down allegedly by an angry mob of taxi drivers at Qhumanco village between near Ngcobo and Cofimvaba. Five taxi operators were arrested and charged with murder;
• In June 2014, three men were injured following rivalry among taxi organisations in Mount Frere; and
• Earlier in 2014, a taxi driver was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for killing two people and injuring two more when he rammed into a sedan he believed was a “pirate” taxi. — lulamilef@dispatch.co.za