City Press reports that with two fatalities and the destruction of 60 buses and 13 minibus taxis in just over two weeks, the public transport sector is in turmoil, with taxi operators blamed for the violence.
Competition for routes is at the heart of the conflict that has left commuters stranded. The City of Johannesburg’s Bus Rapid Transit, Rea Vaya, has been forced to withdraw feeder buses in Soweto due to threats allegedly from taxi operators. Two Rea Vaya feeder bus drivers were shot dead two weeks ago. MMC for transport, Kenny Kunene, condemned the taxi industry for blocking the feeder buses from operating. However, the National Taxi Alliance (NTA) said Kunene had this coming. NTA spokesperson Theo Malele said while the alliance did not condone violence, bringing in the feeder buses into the area angered the local taxi operators, who then pushed back. Malele claimed they were never consulted when the 45 feeder buses were brought in and this has had a devastating impact on their livelihoods. He said the local operators were surprised to find unbranded buses, some with registration numbers of other provinces, picking up passengers along their routes. He explained that each load of these 65-seater buses affected about 198 minibus taxis, which carried 15 passengers. Separately last month, 51 Putco buses were torched in a coordinated attack on three of the bus company’s depots in Mpumalanga. A week after the Putco attack, nine buses were destroyed in a fire at the Northwest Transport Investments (NTI) depot in Moretele village in the North West. Last Sunday, about 20 minibus taxis were torched in an incident at Nyanga Taxi Rank in the Western Cape.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sipho Mabena at City Press (subscriber access only)
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