BusinessDay reports that in a first for the multibillion-rand taxi industry, the SA Taxi Drivers Workers Union (Satdwu) was formally registered with the Registrar of Labour on Monday.

This means minibus taxi drivers who join Satdwu will be represented by the union when it comes to matters such as wage negotiations and other conditions of employment, such as the right to embark on strikes. The move also means the union will be able to rally behind the full implementation of benefits such as the national minimum wage, the Unemployment Fund and Compensation Fund. There are an estimated 400,000 workers in the taxi industry, which transports about 16.5-million passengers a day. Satdwu founder and general secretary Eric Munyai said the plan was to be the biggest union in the sector and bring about unity and peace through regulation of the sector. “Now that we have received our certificate from the labour registrar, the plan moving forward is to embark on a membership recruitment drive and open offices in all nine provinces and at every municipality in the country,” Munyai said.

The union is affiliated with labour federation Cosatu, a key ally of the ANC. Cosatu’s Zanele Sabela pointed out that taxi drivers toiled under a lot of stress to meet “impossible daily revenue targets employers set for them”, and they also had to contend with industry violence, among other issues. “It is these issues and more that Satdwu will have to take up to ensure taxi drivers’ conditions of work are improved,” Sabela noted.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessDay

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