By Shaun Smillie, Alex Eliseev, Linda Mbongwa and Sapa
A bloody taxi feud has claimed the lives of three people in four separate incidents in greater Johannesburg - and taxi associations are blaming each other for the violence.
In one incident on Monday, in Gwigwi Mrwebi Street behind the Bree Street taxi rank, a gunman opened fire on police, taxi drivers and passengers. The shooting came after Dobsonville, Roodepoort, Leratong, Johannesburg Taxi Association (Dorljota) taxis barricaded entrances to the rank.
This followed a tense stand-off between Dorljota and the Faraday Taxi Association (FTA) over a route.
| Shots were fired from the first floor of a nearby building |
Police on the scene were trying to mediate to reopen the rank when the shots were fired from the first floor of a nearby building.
Several people, all believed to be commuters, were injured, including a 40-year-old man who was shot in the chest. Police and bystanders, still under fire, tried to resuscitate the critically injured man.
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Paramedics were forced to wait several blocks away until the shooting subsided before they could enter the crime scene with a police escort.
Joburg metro police's Edna Mamonyane said one of the injured was a 15-year-old girl.
"She was standing behind her mother in a line. A bullet went through the mother's belly and hit the girl."
| 'We found the man without a pulse and not breathing' |
Mamonyane said the violence was related to the ongoing conflict between local taxi organisations.
When The Star arrived on the scene, paramedics were trying to save the life of the 40-year-old.
Five other people lay on the ground, bloodied from their wounds, as medics attended to their injuries.
"We found the man without a pulse and not breathing. He had been shot in the chest. They were able to get his pulse back and he was airlifted by helicopter to Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital. It would be a miracle if he survived," said ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak.
The man later died in hospital.
An FTA driver said he was outside trying to negotiate with drivers of the barricading taxis when the shooting started.
"They (Dorljota) started shooting from their ranks on the first storey. There was a helluva lot of shots. The police fired back and we ran inside," said the man, who didn't want to give his name. "This is not like war - it is war."
Dorljota chairperson Vusi Shabangu, however, claimed the shooters were FTA members. "I had to take cover behind a taxi. We didn't shoot back," he said, adding that he was lucky to be alive.
Most drivers were too scared to be interviewed.
"It is best to say you know nothing," one said - indicating they feared reprisals.
A hawker said she saw men running into the rank with guns.
"I was really scared, I am still shaking."
Besides the nine people injured, the shootout also left at least six taxis riddled with bullets.
Police spokesperson Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said on Monday night there had been no arrests.
In two other incidents on Monday, two taxi drivers were wounded around noon.
The first driver, a 28-year-old man, stopped at the intersection of Hendrik Potgieter and Albert streets on the West Rand when he was attacked, said Captain Siphiwe Ndlovu. "A man who was in another vehicle just opened fire at the taxi at 11.40am."
Twenty minutes later, another driver was wounded in the upper body by two men who were also travelling in a minibus taxi. This happened on the corner of Hendrik Potgieter and Doreen streets.
A 44-year-old taxi owner and a friend were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in Zola, Soweto, on Sunday evening. The assailants fired 16 bullets at the men, using a 9mm pistol and an R-5 rifle.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on May 29, 2007
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