Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s traffic service impounded 47 minibus taxis in Green Point on Monday morning following an illegal blockade outside the Gallows Hill driving licence testing centre by disgruntled taxi operators.
Three people were arrested during the protest. The City said it would make submissions to the provincial regulatory authority seeking the suspension of any operating licences linked to the impounded vehicles and their owners.
“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,” the City’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith said in a statement.
“That is why I called traffic management to ensure that officers enforced the national road traffic act fully and impounded the vehicles that were obstructing the road,” he added.
Officials from the City’s directorate have scheduled a meeting with the affected taxi associations for Monday afternoon.
“The purpose of the meeting is to discuss their grievances as we’ve been receiving conflicting messages about the reasons for the protest action. Once we know the details we’ll be able to map the way forward. These discussions must be based on the premise that the operators will refrain from any further illegal protest action and I’m urging the taxi associations to speak to their members so that we can resolve this impasse as soon as possible,” said the City’s mayoral committee member for transport, Felicity Purchase.