Taxi owners want to ditch permits, become ‘pirates’
NHLANGANO – Taxi owners intend to surrender their working permits and become ‘pirates’, because the actual ‘pirates’ around town do not pay for anything.
A pirate is a person who commits piracy such as the unauthorised use or reproduction of another’s work and this has extended to taxi operators. The taxi owners in Nhlangano town shared that they paid for permits for their cars, as well as certificates of fitness while those operating illegally did not.
They further shared that they were also supposed to pay the Eswatini Service (ERS).
Roadblocks
The taxi owners shared that even at roadblocks, police wanted to see first aid kits, the T-sign as well as receipt books, among other things, something that the illegal taxi drivers were not subjected to.
They questioned why they should pay for permits and ERS when others were able to work for free. They further shared that unlike in other towns, Nhlangano ‘pirates’ were working freely and known to the police.
They shared that they had engaged the police countless times as they alleged to have had about 15 meetings with the police, wherein they were asking for their intervention. One of the taxi owners alleged that police said they would not assist them as the ‘pirates’ were all over.
“Some of the illegal taxis are owned by the police, which is why we think they are not assisting us,” alleged another taxi driver. They shared that if police were able to investigate and arrest people for crimes committed in their absence, they would be able to follow the illegal taxis to know that they were pirating and arrest them.
It was noted that most of the illegal taxis are imports, which cannot be given permits, by law. This is also a blow to government, given that they are operating anyway. They are, in the process, not paying taxes, hence they make a lot of money.
What is troubling the taxi owners is that the illegal operators do not charge for their services as per the gazette, hence they are viewed as expensive compared to the ‘pirates’. Their request is for government’s intervention. The taxi operators have an association known as the Shiselweni Taxi and For Hire Association. In an interview with its Chairperson Velaphi Bhembe, he confirmed that they had engaged the police over 15 times but were not getting help.
Confirmed
He confirmed that the concerns raised by the taxi drivers were true and frustrating. He said they had about 50 taxi owners who were affiliated with the association, but to date, there were less than 15 members who were still paying for permits in full. The others, he said, decided to stop, because they were not making money due to the illegal taxi operators.
“Some of them stopped paying for permits, because their cars were old and they bought the imports, hence they are now pirating,” he said.
The solution to this, according to Bhembe, was for government to amend the law that was against imports operating as taxis. This, he said, would give a chance to those who wanted to operate taxis to be legal and to easily identify those pirating.
Having done that, Bhembe said police were then supposed to be roped in to ensure that the illegal operators were arrested. In an interview with National Road and Transportation Council (NRTC) Acting Chairperson
Muziwethu Masuku, he said they were aware of the concerns. Masuku said the law against imports not being older than 10 years was from the Ministry of Finance.
He said as NRTC, they went with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to the Ministry of Finance to discuss the issue of import cars. He said some of the taxi owners were using the imports before the law was implemented and that they were requesting for it (the law) to be reviewed.
Masuku said they had positive conversations, though they had not received a response from the Finance Ministry.
Banking
“The issue of ‘pirates’ can be sorted by law enforcers, in particular the police at this point. We are all banking our hopes on the police as there is currently no instrument to ascertain who is among them,” he said.
Masuku said law enforcers had a mandate to see to it that ‘pirates’ were arrested. Until then, he said they would motivate their talks with the Finance Ministry to look into import cars operating as taxis.
On the other hand, Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, said the Office of the Regional Commissioner (RC) was not aware of the grievances. She invited some representatives to visit the RC’s Office to discuss the complaints.
“I suppose the meetings referred to happened before the recent challenges the country had,” she said.