The arms deal corruption row has brought the government's taxi recapitalisation programme, with billions at stake, to a screeching halt.
Amid fears of new abuses of the procurement system sparked by the arms probe, the taxi programme is to be completely overhauled at the behest of the department of trade and industry.
Trade and Industry Minister Alec Irwin instructed that the process be reviewed in the light of the controversy surrounding the arms deal.
In a television interview shortly after the release of the multi-agency report on the arms deal, Irwin said the government would have to reassess other procurement processes, including the taxi programme.
Observers believe this may be a wise decision, as the programme appeared to be fraught with potential risks.
One of the key elements required that a new taxi bus, meant to be safer and bigger than present minibus taxis, be built for the industry on a contract awarded by
government tender.
The new buses were to be 18-seater and 35-seater models designed to government specifications and would have replaced the present minibus taxis over four years.
The government would then have paid scrapping allowances to minibus taxi owners, who were meant to use them to cover part of the cost of buying the new buses.
The cost of this project was believed to be anything between R4-billion and R6-billion, and the successful tender candidate could have expected a monopoly market for four years, worth about R16-billion.
But the selection process itself came under fire, with large manufacturer Toyota - maker of most of the vehicles used as minibus taxis - opposing the plan.
A short-list of potential suppliers was released last year and soon raised questions - the company listed at the top, Afinita Motor Corporation, had been placed in liquidation and several of its products had allegedly been found unsafe in a study by the SA Bureau of Standards.
In Gauteng, for example, two privately owned bus companies that operated AMC vehicles were warned to get their vehicles up to scratch or scrap their fleets.
A final announcement on the vehicle of choice was due last month, according to the original timetable, but it was never made.
"The process was halted and a new one will have to be planned," a source at the department of trade and industry said, on condition of anonymity.
Many steps will have to be retraced in order to put back on track the process of identifying a suitable vehicle and supplier.
The taxi industry has so far been able to implement government demands for a single, national umbrella organisation to a greater degree than had been thought possible. The united taxi body is meant to assure the government it is talking to a fully representative organisation.
It was founded during a national convention of taxi owners in Durban recently, after provincial conventions allowed the selection of regional representatives.
The industry has been through a "Be Legal" campaign that has rid it of many fly-by-night taxi operators, while strict law enforcement has followed to ensure drivers have legal status.