TimesLIVE reports that a passenger made the hasty decision to take over the driving of a taxi after the driver was allegedly pepper-sprayed by a Joburg metro cop.
Tshepiso Shongwe was in a taxi on the way to Noord taxi rank on Wednesday morning when the driver made an illegal move into oncoming traffic. “We were stopped by metro police but because the driver started fighting, then he got pepper-sprayed,” she said. The 35-year-old, who holds a code 14 driver's licence, said all the passengers complained until the pepper-sprayed driver asked if someone could drive the taxi. “I decided to drive the taxi but it’s a skorokoro and had to have him help me drive by changing the gears,” she said. In a video making the rounds on social media, the driver can be seen writhing in pain in the passenger seat. Shongwe received R20 from the taxi driver as a token of appreciation after they reached their destination. Ralph Jones of SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) said: "We are not aware of this video but it is scary if metro police can come and pepper-spray our drivers. If he did something wrong then they should have given him a ticket or arrested him.” Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said they would investigate the incident, but added: "If the person who was driving the taxi does not have the relevant documents to drive, then that would have been illegal and we will have to investigate.”
- Read the full original of Karabo Ledwaba’s report on the above story at TimesLIVE
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