Cape Town -
Government officials and taxi bosses from rival associations met on Thursday to discuss the recent spate of violence in Delft that have resulted in one death and a number of shootings and protests.
Taxi owner Sipho Maseti, 50, spokesman for the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), was killed on Saturday at his Kraaifontein home in front of his children, while there has been protest action in Westlake, Retreat and Delft due to unhappiness over routes.
Cape Amalgamated Taxi Associations (Cata), the Delft Taxi Association (Deta), Santaco and officials from Transport MEC Donald Grant’s office attended Thursday’s meeting.
The provincial Transport Department mediated the meeting to find amicable solutions to the rising tension, Grant said.
Issues discussed include Cata’s taxi drivers “illegally” operating in Delft, as a memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 did not allow this, said Deta chairperson Nazeem Daniels, who was part of the meeting.
Daniels said the memorandum stated that only seven Cata members were allowed to operate in Delft. He said Cata had increased this number to more than 50. He blamed Cata for the tension by allowing its members to operate on the Delft route.
He said the tension was because Cata had “forced” Deta to increase its fares from R12 to R14 last month.
“We defied the fare increase and that is what started the fighting,” said Daniels, adding that Cata was allowing, without permission, drivers to pick up passengers in Delft.
He said there was also a further 23 Cata taxi owners who reside in Delft and operated in Delft without a mandate.
“We are the custodians of Delft,” said Daniels.
Daniels said “for the sake of peace”, his association had welcomed the 23 Cata members.
Santaco chairperson Lefu Marobela said the Cata drivers operating in Delft “were not part of the meeting”, and it was decided that no solution would be amicable without their presence.
Cata spokesperson Dan Khumalo was not available for comment on Thursday.
Grant said his department “had a number of interventions” since the disagreements within the taxi industry escalated last month, adding that he “visited two taxi bosses” in hospital when they were shot.
“Taxi-fighting hot spots were identified,” said Grant, adding that the issuing of operating licences was “being sorted out”.
Grant explained that the number of taxi bosses who had been killed was “difficult” to determine, but said that in the last crime statistics, police stated that 18 taxi drivers and bosses had died between October 2013 and September last year.
He said “obviously there were many others (lives lost) since”.
“The murders may not happen at the taxi rank, but could be related to the taxi violence.”
Police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk said the police were having monthly meetings with all the roleplayers in the taxi industry to discuss taxi violence.