TimesLIVE reports that the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) is optimistic the implementation of the National Land Transport Amendment Act will reduce deadly violence within the transport industry.

President Cyril Ramaphosa signed the legislation, from 2016, into law a week before starting his second term. It relates to public transport regulation and introduction of safety measures. Santaco spokesperson Rebecca Phala described the Act as a comprehensive framework needed to provide clarity in the transport industry. “There was ambiguity with the operations of e-hailing operators, essentially it led to a lot of confusion on the ground, so [the bill is] a step in the right direction. The government should speedily release those regulations so that we know what it means for us as taxi operators,” said Phala. Violence between taxi drivers and drivers of e-hailing services such as Uber, Bolt, Didi and InDrive has long been an issue in the transport industry. Over the years e-hailing drivers have been physically assaulted and had their cars burnt during tension with taxi drivers who claim territories and view e-hailing drivers as threats to their business. “We’ve never taken accountability for any of those accusations because it has never been proven that our operators are responsible. We don’t take pride in being labelled as suspect number one when these incidents happen. We don’t take responsibility for any of them,” Phala pointed out. However, she added that the transport regulations would reduce criminality on the roads.

• Read the original of the report in the above regard by Innocentia Nkadimeng at BusinessLive

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