Turf battle erupts at taxi rank

Fist fights raged around the new but vacant R35m intermodal taxi rank in Komani at midday on Wednesday.

A Dispatch reporter on the scene was manhandled and forced to delete photographs of the fracas, which involved scores of taxi operators who used their taxis in a quasi-military-style in the street battle to block off and surround opposition taxis.

On Wednesday morning, operators from smaller outlying towns of Vaalbank, Whittlesea, Molteno, Thornhill and Sterkstroom fought it out with the provincial Uncedo Taxi Association’s Komani branch for control of the rank.

The day began with taxi drivers from smaller towns, as well as hawkers, forcefully occupying the rank, which had been vandalised and unused for nearly 10 years before being rebuilt.

Uncedo Taxi Association members suddenly arrived and blocked the rank’s entrances.

Uncedo Komani members then attacked two taxi drivers from near Komani.

Toyota Quantums arrived and off-loaded Uncedo members, who started chasing away commuters trying to use the competitors’ taxis.

Four police vans arrived, but by that point there was a fleet of 50 Uncedo taxis that had shut down the area.

A taxi from Thornhill tried to break the Uncedo blockade but was charged by a crowd from Uncedo, who stopped the minibus and forced the commuters out of the vehicle.

Another driver who tried to intervene was beaten up by Uncedo members.

More taximen joined the brawl and another fight started a metre away.

At one point 20 men were punching each other.

When the Dispatch reporter snapped a few pictures, a group of taxi drivers charged at him, grabbed him and pushed him about while demanding that the photographs be deleted.

The police stepped in and stopped the brawl.

Police and traffic cops started unravelling the taxi jam, which stretched from Pelem Road into the disputed rank.

Uncedo Komani branch chair Sandi Mgobo said they met with Enoch Mgijima municipality executive mayor Sibusiso Mvana on May 30 about the new rank.

“The meeting agreed that the rank would be handed to us before the end of June.

“We don’t know who gave these people the rank,” he said. “We are here to stop operations. We just blocked the entrances and this is peaceful.”

Taxi drivers from the Vaalbank, Thornhill and Whittlesea areas said they had operated from the space for years.

Shepherd Fatyela, from Vaalbank association, said: “The municipality promised to build a taxi rank for us and now we are occupying our taxi rank.

“Where was Uncedo when we operated in this dusty rank? Now they want to take it because it has been built.”

Enoch Mgijima municipality spokesperson Gcobani Msindwana confirmed the meeting with “taxi industry stakeholders to resolve the handing over of the rank”.

“The rank is the property of the municipality and has not been handed over,” he said.

“We will work with the traffic and police to remove anyone who has illegally occupied the rank and put up barbed wire until we officially hand over the rank.

“Routes and other matters relating to the running of the rank will be finalised as soon as possible,” he said.

Police spokesperson Capt Namhla Mdleleni had not responded to questions by the time of going to print.