A wave of red moved along Jakes Gerwel Drive on Monday as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) demanded the keys to impounded taxis from the City of Cape Town.
The much-anticipated protest started on the field near Vangate Mall in the morning from where they proceeded to the Maitland Traffic Impound Facility.
The EFF’s “shutdown” went ahead, albeit at a much smaller scale, after several organisations pulled out at the last minute on Sunday because they didn’t want to be associated with any potential violence.
These included the provincial ANC, South African National Taxi Council (Santaco), a faction of Sanco and the People’s Movement for Change (PMC).
On Monday, protesters accused SAPS of barring some members who were driving from Hermanus, but they were informed by the police that there was an accident.
Scores of taxis arrived carrying people wearing red EFF shirts.
A faction from Sanco, led by Chris Stali, the PAC and the Land Party joined the march.
EFF provincial chairperson Unathi Ntame said that Santaco were present but in their capacity as party members.
He accused the City of using impoundments as a cash cow.
“The DA-led City is still continuing with their propaganda machinery, they engaged Santaco comrades, and said they are going to relax the nonsensical conditions whereby they’d been impounding taxis wrongly for two months, where only the cars which are not roadworthy, vehicles without permits and a driver without a licence will be impounded,” Ntame added.
“JP Smith will continue making R1.5 million for the City through impoundments.”
About 500 protesters walked along Jakes Gerwel Drive, then via Pinelands until they reached the Maitland facility on Alexandra Road.
Their demands included that the City give the taxi industry operating licences and also hand over the keys of impounded vans to their owners.
They also demanded the City halt the Urban Mobility Summit that was due to start this morning, until there are resolutions to their demands.
Roberto Quintas, Mayco member for Urban Mobility, accepted the memorandum, before being whisked away after Ntame grabbed the microphone from him as he was addressing the crowd.
Mayco member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, said the EFF was being unreasonable.
“Unfortunately the EFF is out of the loop with the progress that has been made with the minibus task team. They also appear to be ignorant of the laws involved,” he added.
“As previously stated, if Santaco believes that any of their taxis have been irregularly impounded, they can produce the relevant impoundment notices and the City will then make representations to the Public Prosecutor to support the release of these vehicles on individual cases.”
Police said the march ended peacefully with no violence reported.
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za