Jason Felix, Francesca Villette and Siyavuya Mzantsi
NOLUNDI ZWAYI, a Delft mother of three, normally takes a five-minute walk to catch a bus to work – but for the past two days she has walked for more than an hour to get to public transport.
Zwayi is one of thousands of commuters affected by the mayhem caused by disgruntled taxi drivers who went on the rampage. Golden Arrow withdrew its service from Delft, Nyanga and Mfuleni after several of its buses were torched on Monday.
While there has been all-round condemnation of the violence, thousands of commuters have had to walk long distances to get transport.
Zwayi, 51, said she had to leave
home at 5.30am to catch a train at the Unibell station. It took her an hour to walk to the station. She normally boarded a bus after a five-minute walk from home, she said.
“This whole thing was frustrating for me. Having to wake up as early as 4am is difficult because you also have to walk a long distance. We don’t have a station in Delft, so our option is to use Unibell, which is kilometres from my house,” she said. She and other residents walked in groups for safety.
“You can’t walk alone as early as 5am because you might get robbed. I couldn’t afford not to go to work because once you don’t work you don’t get paid,” Zwayi said.
Travelling to the city centre in a crowded train added to her frustration
. “At some point I felt like crying.
I was not prepared for what happened,” she said.
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, top city officials, Golden Arrow Bus management, the police and taxi associations met yesterday and agreed to work together to resolve the problem, which ostensibly originated from taxi drivers’ frustrations over heavy fines for traffic offences and the impounding of vehicles.
“We would like to give the assurance to commuters that the city, Golden Arrow and taxi associations will work together to prevent these disruptions from happening again. All public transport services will continue as normal,” De Lille said after the meeting.
A forum had been established with taxi leaders from the six regions around the city to enable taxi associations to discuss their grievances, she said.
Mzoxolo Dibela, provincial secretary of the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco), said the provincial Department of Transport had been given a list of grievances.
“We do not condone for one minute the protest that happened. We will exhaust all legal avenues to come to an agreement,” Dibela said.
The council, however, was in no way linked to the violence.
“The taxi drivers responsible for the protest do not belong to the council,” Dibela said. “Only taxi owners were members of Santaco.”
A memorandum of demands would be given to the department today.
Department spokesman Al-Ameen Kafaar confirmed it had received a list of grievances.
Police spokesman FC van Wyk said eight people had been arrested in Mfuleni yesterday. On Monday, seven buses were set alight in Nyanga and two trucks in Mfuleni. Items were stolen from the trucks.
“Police respect the right of people to embark on peaceful protests. However, if such actions involve violence and the infringement of other people’s rights, including the destruction of property, the police are obliged to take action.”