Police Minister Bheki Cele says they will establish a police team that will look into the taxi related violence and killings within the industry at Ugu and Harry Gwala Districts.
Cele held a meeting with 18 taxi associations at Gamalakhe on the KwaZulu-Natal south coast.
Addressing the safety concerns, Cele says at least 24 people within the industry have been killed between January and July this year in both districts.
The Minister says they also want taxi operators to account on what they do with the money they make.
“We need to put a competency team from different arms of government, where there is money that is unaccountable [for]. The best … [institution] to deal to deal with people is [the] South African Revenue Service (SARS). So, the team that we are going to put here [will] speak to other ministers.”
“I have appraised some of them and say there is this issue, can we take this direction so that SARS is part of it and so that somebody can be able to explain the kind of wealth [they have accumulated]. There is a lot of dirty work where. People collect money and kill other people and all of that,” explains Cele.
In recent months, there have been a series of taxi violence incidents in the Western Cape.
In March, the Minister of Transport in the Western Cape province made a plea to the police and the taxi industry to bring calm to the province.
In the video below, Police Minister Bheki Cele says a task team will be established to probe taxi violence:
