It’s expected that thousands of taxi commuters will be left stranded as operators go on strike to protest against the taxi industry leadership.
“The whole Western Cape will be coming to a standstill. We urge people to make use of alternative transport and not to use public transport at all,” said Amien Carlsen, from the Wynberg Taxi Association, and spokesman for the 148 striking taxi associations.
At the heart of their list of grievances is unhappiness with the leadership of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco).
According to them, only four associations make all the decisions along with Santaco, and they want elective processes to be changed to include representatives from the other associations.
The group asked MEC for Transport and Public Works, Donald Grant, to intervene and set up a pre-election conference to discuss nominations for the new leadership.
Mark Tregonning, treasurer for Hazeldene Taxi Association in Mitchells Plain, says elections are held every four years.
“It’s election time for the industry, when regional and provincial leaders are to be chosen. We disagree with the constitution for the election of provincial leaders,” he says.
“We as the taxi industry don’t get informed correctly on how to place a candidate forward in the proper way and most times it gets thrown out and people get re-elected.”
Tregonning also says they want Government to take the industry “seriously”.
“The taxi industry caters to the majority of commuters but we are being overlooked by the City. They see us as informal but we are business people. We want to be subsidised by government like Golden Arrow. We have been requesting a meeting with the MEC for over a year. He wants to talk to the industry and not the people [running the industry].”
Carlsen says a meeting will be held with the MEC on Monday.
“Codeta and Cata Associations are 100 percent with us, as this is all for a common goal. Government is currently speaking only to Santaco who are just signing off on things we are not even aware of, regarding MyCiTi and trains.
“There are 152 associations, only four are standing with Santaco signing off things.
“We will march at 5am from Wynberg. From there, we’ll go everywhere to ensure no taxi is driving but this will not be done in a forceful way. We have no intention of any violence during this strike,” Carlsen adds.
Grant’s spokesperson, Siphesihle Dube, confirmed the MEC agreed to meet with striking associations.
Santaco chairperson in the Western Cape, Vernon Billet, did not respond to queries.
However, he told Weekend Argus: “It [strike] was never communicated to us and is not something we support. A group who want to change policies of the organisation outside of conference who refused to listen to reason are the instigators,” Billet said.