Johannesburg - MEC for Community Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane and Transport MEC Ismail Vadi in Gauteng will on Tuesday announce a plan of action to deal with the dangerous conflict between the two taxi associations in Soweto.
This comes as taxi drivers from Nancefield-Dube West Taxi Association (Nanduwe) marched to the Office of the Premier on Friday. They shutdown traffic flow in the inner city by parking their taxis in the streets. They were demanding to be allowed to operate on their routes again.
Members of the Nanduwe group took to the streets on Friday and closed all intersections around the Office of the Premier. They complained that "unknown" security guards were preventing them from operating on their routes.
Nanduwe and rivals Witwatersrand African Taxi Association (Wata) have been at loggerheads for over a year. At times the conflict has become violent resulting in the loss of lives and interruption of commuter services.
In April three taxi owners affiliated to Wata were gunned down. A taxi driver and a passerby were also injured in the shooting.
Nanduwe accuses Wata of defying a court order to withdraw its taxis from the Dube route and to stop picking up passengers in the area.
The two associations have also been fighting over early morning pick-up points in Mofolo, Orlando West, and Central Western Jabavu.
Last month, the dispute was heard by the Provincial Regulatory Entity, which ruled that Wata had irregularly encroached on the routes registered in the name of Nanduwe.
Also last month, police arrested three suspects after a shootout between Nanduwe and Wata taxi operators in Soweto.
The latest violence erupted after Transport MEC Vadi issued a notice of intent to close taxi ranks and suspend routes of Nanduwe and Wata. Taxi services along the affected routes in Soweto were to be suspended from July 6 to August 6.