Durban - A group of taxi operators with vehicles on a Durban CBD route claimed they had been blocked since April by the chairman of the association because they questioned his management style.
In court documents, they accused Mahendra Jaichand, the chairman of the Inner City Circle Taxi Association (Pty) Ltd, of using intimidation tactics to get his way.
Pradeepkumar Dhawcharan, Niresh Jugernath, Bhagwandeen Jugroop, Iqbal Khan, Ashraff Khan, Farhana Bibi Khan and Jerome Jugroop made an urgent application to Durban High Court for relief last week.
Dhawcharan, who is the association's secretary, deposed an affidavit on behalf of the group. He asked, that while the court decided whether it was lawful or not for Jaichand to have suspended their membership, he be prevented from interfering with their operations, and their taxis be reinstated.
They also requested that the decision to remove them as executive members of the association be reviewed. The route runs predominantly through the beachfront and Mahatma Gandhi (Point) Road.
Jaichand has been the chairman since 2004 and controlled the association’s financial records, according to the group.
Dhawcharan said: “ Due to the fear of the safety of our lives and our drivers we subjected ourselves to the manner in which he (Jaichand) ran the association.”
They became suspicious that Jaichand abused the association's funds in 2017 and got no response when they approached him about that.
When Dhawcharan sent a letter to Jaichand on April 15, requesting an urgent meeting, they got a notice 10 days later about their suspension, “without justification”.
Dhawcharan sent a grievance letter to the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco), but were told to they should meet with Jaichand and resolve their differences.
After fruitless attempts to regain admission, the group engaged an attorney with the intention of gaining a court order to effect their reinstatement. An advocate was also engaged to prepare the required documents.On July 16, the group received an order of the court from their attorney which reflected their reinstatement.
“We were elated and immediately dispatched our taxis to operate, but it came as a huge surprise to us that the order was fake and not issued by the court.”
Dhawcharan said they attempted to contact their attorney for clarity but were unsuccessful. Their hopes were raised when Jaichand invited them to a meeting on July 31, but they saw the “armed and hugely built men” at the meeting as an intimidation tactic.
After an hour into the meeting, they decided to leave because their issues were not addressed and Jaichand became confrontational when they questioned him.
Dhawcharan said the July meeting was not properly constituted, AGM’s were not scheduled for years previously and audited financial statements were not presented.
They then engaged attorney Sunil Singh to facilitate their urgent high court application because the 22 taxis owned collectively by the group was their only source of income.
Dhawcharan said Singh wrote to Jaichand’s attorney’s (Roy Singh Attorneys) asking for reinstatement by August 5, and when that didn’t materialise they approached the court.
Jaichand denied the allegations made by the group and questioned why their response only came more than three months after their suspension, in his response.
“This can only mean that their economic survival doesn’t depend solely on the taxis.”
Jaichand said the group didn’t say when exactly their previous attorney was instructed to launch their application and their application had many procedural flaws, including the timeline and not listing Santaco, the governing structure of the taxi industry, as a respondent.
Their failure to comply with permit and licence requirements was a key issue, according to Jaichand. His attorney made numerous requests for the said documents and when it was delivered, it was incomplete.
“Their non compliance caused disruptions and discord among members of the association.”
He said that a Special General meeting the association held on July 31 was a directive from Santaco and the agenda items included removal of executives and elections.
Jaichand said all six respondents were removed as executives and that’s what resulted in the rush to the high court “under false pretenses”.
He also alleged that the group had a hand in the production of the “fake order” and attempted to lay the blame on their previous attorney because they were the only ones to benefit from it.
Jaichand said he was the complainant in the fake order matter being investigated by police.
“The applicants have not come with clean hands and played open cards with the court.”
Jaichand denied that the association’s funds were mismanaged and said that financial statements were always made available at AGMs.