Cape Town – It has emerged that Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) boss Victor Wiwi was shot and killed while en route home from Laingsburg, where he was to resolve an issue of transport in the area.
The issue he was dealing with was related to a company that hired taxis from outside the Western Cape to provide services at a wind farm, instead of those who operate locally.
This surfaced yesterday during a meeting between Cata, the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco), the Congress of Democratic Taxi Associations (Codeta), the Laingsburg Municipality and Transport MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela to address concerns over ongoing violence and taxi killings.
Wiwi was killed last Wednesday in Nyanga.
Madikizela said the contractors were now in agreement that taxis in the province will be the ones providing services in the area.
“We wanted to find a solution to the impasse in Laingsburg. I received a number of calls last week from the mayor and the speaker raising some serious concerns because they had fears that the situation might escalate to violence.
“What we resolved is that as per our discussion between Codeta, Cata and the municipality last week, the taxis that belong in the Eastern Cape will have to go back to the Eastern Cape,” Madikizela said.
Santaco provincial chairperson Nazeem Abdurahman said the municipality “must understand that when there is transport opportunity they must always contact Santaco as the first point of entry”.
“It came to our notice that there were issues around Gauteng vehicles operating in the province and Eastern Cape. What we want to do is to make sure that the province obtains benefits from the value chain, we will make sure that the right people must benefit from any opportunity and even with planning, if planning and developments takes place they must always consult us because we will do the right thing.”
Laingsburg executive member Ricardo Louw said there is a lack of transportation in the area and that is why local contractors use taxis from other provinces.
“We had a fruitful meeting with the MEC. The meeting was about a wind farm and the challenges we have. We have another meeting tomorrow (today) and hopefully we will find solutions.”