Thousands of commuters are expected to turn to bakkies to get to their destination as the taxi strike continues in KwaZulu-Natal. | Archives
Durban — Thousands of long-distance taxi commuters in KwaZulu-Natal could be left stranded on Monday as taxi operators vowed to continue with their strike.
On Friday, taxi owners instructed their drivers to down keys and protest against provincial Transport MEC Siboniso Duma’s refusal to suspend the services of the department’s public enforcement programme “no-nonsense provincial traffic police unit” known as Shanela. The unit earned the name Shanela which means sweeping after it swept many unroadworthy taxis off the road during Dr Sbu Ndebele’s tenure as the Transport MEC in the province.
The taxi bosses also demanded that Duma release all 81 impounded taxis which the MEC also turned down.
The bone of contention between the MEC and taxi bosses is the permit issue, in which the department said they were available for collection while taxi owners said there were no permits.
Speaking to the Daily News Durban Long Distance Taxi Association spokesperson Bhekisisa Nzuza said there will be no taxis running on Monday because the strike will continue until Duma accede to their demands.
Nzuza blamed the MEC for lying to the public about the availability of permits, saying in their previous meeting which led to the suspension of the strike, the MEC had committed to consider their demands of suspending Shanela and releasing the impounded taxis while resolving the issue of permits but now has reneged from that commitment which was why they started the strike again.
“There will be no taxis. We want the MEC to suspend Shanela and release our taxis. We stopped our protest last time because he committed himself but now that he reneged from that commitment we have gone to the strike,” said Nzuza.
He said there were 81 impounded taxis provincial wide, adding that each taxi was being charged R200 a day for storage and the court demanded a R25 000 fine for operating without permits.
Department’s spokesperson Ndabezinhle Sibiya said there were 5000 permits on the department’s system waiting to be collected by taxi owners, blaming them for not collecting them. Sibiya said the MEC would not lie and say there were permits while not there since everything was being audited by the country’s auditor-general. On the issue of impounded taxis and the suspension of Shanela, Sibiya said those were legal processes that the MEC would not interfere with.
“Imagine if the MEC takes law into his own hands as an executive. The MEC respects the judiciary therefore he would not interfere with the legal processes,” said Sibiya.
There are already fears that the strike would turn violent as rogue elements have started blocking taxis from outside the province which are ferrying passengers to the province since they were not affected by the permit issue in their province. The provincial economy was also expected to take a knock as more than 60% of commuters rely on taxis daily to and from work.
A few weeks ago Duma together with prominent taxi boss Mandla Gcaba and other taxi industry captains met to discuss the same issue after taxis embarked on violent protests blocking major roads including highways.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News