Cape Town - A group of minibus taxi owners with vehicles operating in Green Point, Sea Point and Hout Bay downed tools in protest at the decision to impound their vehicles this week.
The city’s traffic service impounded 47 minibus taxis in Green Point on Monday following an illegal blockade outside the Gallows Hill driving licence testing centre by disgruntled taxi operators.
They were demanding operating permits.
On Monday, safety and security mayoral committee member JP Smith said: “This is the second illegal blockade in as many days and the City cannot tolerate such behaviour.
“Apart from the fact that it erases any chance of discussions in good faith about the concerns of taxi operators, it also causes untold frustration to motorists who are inconvenienced by these actions, and it harms the economy, which we can ill afford.”
Taxi owner Sabelo Nyama said: “The City knows the matter because they were the ones who gave us
permission to operate. Now they changed that. They only told us on Monday that the permission was
suspended, without letting us know.
“To release a taxi you must first pay R10 000. The City doesn’t understand that we are serving people here. Our commuters are now stranded, people do not have transport to go to work.”
Stranded commuters were forced to use metered taxis, causing a tense stand-off between minibus taxi owners and metered taxi drivers.
“This does not affect only our commuters as well; it affects our drivers too. Now they are not at work because of this. We only have one permit. Our cars get impounded every day.
“The five vehicles with operating licences will not able to cope with the volume of people who need to be transported.”
Zintle Nodabongo, who works in Sea Point, said: “We wish this could be resolved sooner. On Monday, I had to walk from town to Sea Point and walk again after work.”
Safety and security executive director Richard Bosman said: “The matter is not resolved yet and the drivers/owners must apply to the regulatory authority for permits.
“Taxi drivers will need to pay the impound fee before the vehicles will be released.”