Gauteng rival taxi associations miss deadline

Two rival taxi associations in Gauteng and the National Taxi Alliance have asked provincial authorities for more time to resolve their differences.

Gauteng Transport MEC, Ismail Vadi, has threatened to shut down at least 10 routes and some ranks in Soweto. This after violence erupted earlier this week.

Vadi initially set a 5 pm deadline on Friday, for a progress report.

The National Taxi Alliance is facilitating talks between associations Nanduwe and Wata who are fighting over routes in Dube and White City.

“Part of the industry problem is that the routes are not determined. Everyone claims ownership of the routes and it starts to create some tension that leads to violence and the killings. So we want our entity to do its job as per its obligation,”says  Gauteng Portfolio Committee on Roads and Transport Chair, Mafika Mgcina.

The committee has called for an urgent meeting with the transport and community safety MEC’s and all parties involved.

“So if we are having this meeting between now and Sunday it will try to find a workable solution to ensure that we avert closure of the routes.”

An option on table, is to merge Nanduwe and Wata associations.

“We don’t want to pre-empt the negotiations but that is a very serious consideration we are making on our interventions,” says General Secretary of National Taxi Alliance, Alpheus Mlalazi.

The anticipated route and rank closures, will see almost 5000 taxis removed from Gauteng roads.