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Police task team probes taxi related violence in Cape Town

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A task team attached to Western Cape police is investigating two separate attacks thought to be linked to the taxi industry in Cape Town.

Five people were killed and two others seriously wounded in a shooting at the Nyanga Terminus on the Cape Flats on Monday night.

Four of them died on the scene and the fifth in hospital.

No arrests have been made.

Seven more people were also wounded in three shootings in the Cape Town CBD at midday on Monday.

Police have been deployed to potential hotspots.

Police say earlier in the day, gunmen opened fire at three locations in the Cape Town city centre including the Cape Town Station Deck, Marine Drive and Buitenkant Street.

Two people have been arrested and firearms confiscated following the attack.

The taxi industry has been marred by violence linked to infighting over routes.

Taxi driver shot dead at a Cape Town taxi rank in July

In July, one person was shot and killed and two others wounded during an alleged taxi-related shooting incident in Philippi on the Cape Flats.

Gauteng police Commissioner called to taxi violence inquiry

In September, Gauteng Police Commissioner Elias Mawela was called before the Commission of Inquiry into Taxi Violence in Gauteng to account for hundreds of unresolved taxi-related murders.

This followed revelations by retired Lieutenant General Vinesh Moonoo, the commission’s investigator, that 505 taxi-related murder cases, dating back to 2012, are still pending.

President of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), Phillip Taaibosch, said when taxi operators are killed, in most cases, the suspects are never found.

Taaibosch had been testifying at the commission in Parktown, Johannesburg.

The commission was set up in September last year after a spate of taxi-related killings.

Taaibosch says one of the causes of taxi violence in Gauteng is the high number of taxi associations operating in the same city.

He made reference to rival taxi associations that have clashed over routes in the Johannesburg area for years.

Taaibosch said they should follow the example of his home province, the Free State, which has adopted a One Town, One Taxi Association approach.

“We brought associations in the Free State from close to 130 associations to about 75. If you go to QwaQwa you’ve got one taxi association, go to Harrismith, you’ve got one taxi association, Bloemfontein, one taxi association. And they’ve been operating like that now for I think more than 20 years. And I can tell you judge you don’t have, you have mild conflicts. I can’t remember when last was there violence in the taxi industry in the Free State.”

 

 

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