Johannesburg - Gauteng Premier David Makhura has announced that a special task force is to be established to quell violence between Uber operators and metered taxis.
Makhura, together with Mec for Roads and Transport Ismail Vadi and Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane announced that the task team was to be established as violence between the two factions had reached dangerous proportions.
He said following a meeting with safety and police stakeholders in Midrand, the decision was taken for intervention to be instituted immediately to avoid the situation getting to a point where 'hits' start being carried out.
The Gauteng Premier said: "I am very disturbed with every case that happens that we will lose lots of lives. I am worried that we will have lots of killings as we are witnessing in KwaZulu-Natal."
"If we don't clamp down on this as we've seen with previous instances of taxi violence that if it is not stemmed out quickly it can evoke a killing machine," he added.
It is with this concern that Makhura said they had called on national intervention to deal with the situation as from Monday.
To date, Makhura said there had only been 28 arrests and 166 cases pending with the police at different stages of investigation; while there had been close to 300 attacks.
Most of the attacks are said to be primarily in Tshwane and Johannesburg.