Thomson Reuters Foundation reports that from a women-only driving school to an all-female taxi service — a SA activist-turned-entrepreneur is tackling high rates of sexual assault by providing safe transport in one of the country’s most crime-ridden areas.
The Cape Flats, which lies on the outskirts of Cape Town, is notorious for gang warfare, and sexual violence is an everyday fear for women taking taxis or using public transport in the area, noted Joanie Fredericks. Launched last week, Fredericks said her taxi service, Ladies Own Transport, had already received calls from women requesting a ride to work that would keep them safe. “I’ve heard too many stories of women being raped in taxis. I always knew I wanted to do something about it, but a few weeks ago I heard someone I know personally has been raped and I thought I can’t wait a minute longer,” Fredericks said. Ladies Own Transport is an add-on company to the women’s driving school that Fredericks launched in 2018, which has taught hundreds of women to drive. It became a kind of counselling service too, she said. Customers told her male driving instructors often tried to “chat them up”. Fredericks, who has also been running a feeding scheme for more than 10,000 people since lockdown began in 2020, hopes to expand her taxi service from her neighbourhood of Tafelsig across the Cape Flats.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kim Harrisberg at BusinessLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page