The Citizen reports that Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula was forced to flee from Soshanguve in Pretoria on Monday after disgruntled taxi operators demanding that government dig deeper for a R20,000 relief subsidy wouldn’t let him speak.
Patently angry taxi drivers questioned why government had resorted to bringing in the SA National Defence Force to their “peaceful” protest. As Mbalula struggled to field the many questions thrown at him by volatile drivers, his security detail opted to put the minister into a vehicle which drove off. Mbalula rushed to the area after police opened fire on taxi operators with rubber bullets in an attempt to bring order to the area. Taxi operators who had blocked roads with burning tires were forced to flee after police strong-armed them off the roads. Mbalula, in an effort to extinguish tensions between government and taxi operators, announced a R1.135-billion Covid-19 relief fund on Friday, accessible to operators under certain conditions. The KwaZulu-Natal taxi bosses have also put their hand up to possibly down tools on Wednesday this week in support of taxi operators’ demand for government to dig deeper into its pockets to provide support to the sector.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Gopolang Moloko at The Citizen
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