WATCH | No punches pulled during taxi dialogue
Eastern Cape transport MEC Weziwe Tikana yesterday put her foot down, rejecting all pleas from desperate Mthatha residents and taxi operators to re-open the remaining taxi ranks that were shut by Police Minister Bheki Cele earlier this year.
She was speaking during a Daily Dispatch-supported stakeholder dialogue session on taxi violence hosted by the transport department at the Mthatha Airport yesterday.
Tikana said the ranks would stay shut until members of the rival associations – Uncedo Service Taxi Association and Border Alliance Taxi Association – had learned to work together.
Although the peace agreement thrashed out between the state and the two associations had ended single association-dominated taxi ranks, the associations were not keeping to the agreement.
“If you go to Chartam [rank] you find Bata and in another rank you find Uncedo only,” she said. “They have to work together and show unity.”
Daily Dispatch editor-in-chief Sibusiso Ngalwa acted as facilitator. Among those present were members of the two associations, mayors from several municipalities, traditional leaders, politicians and residents.
Ngalwa opened by explaining the paper’s involvement in the session, saying the Dispatch was an established brand and part of the broader community. “When ranks are closed we are also affected as some of our staff use public transport.”
He said he hoped the session could assist in crafting a lasting solution to the problem of taxi violence.
Previous reports that 60 people have been killed in taxi violence since 2016 prompted Cele to close routes and taxi ranks in and around Mthatha earlier this year.
Subsequently the Jubilee and Chartam ranks were reopened, followed by the Marikana rank. Two weeks ago Tikana also announced the reopening of Golden Egg rank near the Plaza mall, as well as the Circus Triangle rank.
But yesterday a resident of Mthatha West, Thembinkosi Butshingi, criticised her for the closure of other ranks saying the elderly and the disabled now had to walk long distances to Jubilee to catch a taxi home, and this left them vulnerable to being mugged. Jubilee rank had no toilets, he added.
“We don’t want five ranks, we want all 10 of them to be reopened,” he said to loud cheers.
Taxi operator Velile Nombengula said the government should have designed a better response to the problem than just forcing the associations to work together.
King Sabata Dalindyebo municipality’s public safety portfolio head Tshepo Machaea said there were only three legal ranks in Mthatha.
All the others were “just amabala” (fields), he added.
He also revealed that they were in the process of crafting by-laws to regulate taxi ranks and the taxi industry in general.
Nombengula said they had been operating on those “fields” for years.
Sanco leader in the OR Tambo region Thembelani Guga said they were happy with the session and while they did not like the closure of ranks, they wanted to see the end of taxi violence more.
During the latter part of the session things heated up when some taxi operators and residents start heckling each other.
But a tough-talking Tikana told them that the same intolerance they were showing was what she was encountering during meetings with the two associations – in other words what kept the ranks shut.
She said the department was open to discussion but its main responsibility was to keep people – in this case mainly commuters – safe and alive. -sikhon@dispatch.co.za..
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