Durban - The taxi strike that left thousands of workers in Durban stranded has ended after an agreement was reached between the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in KwaZulu-Natal and the province’s transport department.
Santaco’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman Boy Zondi said on Thursday that agreement had been reached late Wednesday. Taxi operators had been on strike for two days.
Santaco went on a province wide strike after several taxis were impounded over the Easter Weekend for failing to have the required permits.
Santaco has long complained that the failure to process permits or issue new ones has led to the problems of insufficient permits for a growing industry.
Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said incidents of violence had been restricted to the Durban central business district and the city’s Warwick Triangle area.
He said the eight people, who were arrested will face charges of public violence.
eThekwini Metro Police spokesman Superintendent Sibonelo Mchunu said that there were various incidents of stone throwing and people being pulled from taxis.
On Thursday morning Zondi said: “The taxis are back to normal. The negotiations went well. We have reached an agreement.”
Zondi said that Willies Mchunu, the province’s transport, community safety and liaison MEC, had agreed to negotiate with the National Prosecuting Authority to have all minibus taxis impounded for permit violations released on payment of a R1 000 fine instead of the initial R10 000 fine.
Mchunu said it had also been agreed that no taxis would be impounded over public transport permit violations.
Zondi said that the national transport department had placed a moratorium on the issuing of permits for the past 10 years.
“This is going on too long. We believe this is not our fault. You are not issuing permits and then you are failing to cater for the growing market. You do no stop issuing birth certificates when you have too many people. They are the ones at fault while they take so long to sort out their processes,” said Zondi.
The Santaco’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman said he would meet Mchunu over the next “three or four days” to deal with specific taxi permit related issues.
There are 246 taxi associations with about 25,000 minibus taxis operating in the province.
Transport spokesman Kwanele Ncelane, was not available for comment.
African News Agency