Taxi violence erupts in Delft
Growing fears of new war between rival minibus associations
CONCERN has arisen after the murder of a taxi driver that a new taxi war has broken out between rival taxi associations in Delft. The fatal shooting has been attributed by one of the taxi associations running the Delft taxi rank to the illegal operation of taxis. However, the motive for the incident remains unclear.
Police spokesperson Andre Traut confirmed that a 40-year-old taxi driver was shot dead at the Delft taxi rank at about 6.20am by an unidentified gunman.
An investigation was under way and no arrests had yet been made, Traut said.
Cape Town Cape Amalgamated Taxi Association (Cata) acting chairperson Nqazeleni Matayitayi said the shooting was sparked by “illegal taxi operations”.
Two weeks ago, he said, legal operators at the rank noticed a group of taxis not licensed to operate at the rank or use the association-owned routes. Delft taxi rank is run by three associations that have divided the routes among them.
“When the drivers arrived to pick up commuters they noticed taxis that did not belong to the three associations registered for Delft. We then decided that there was a need to investigate who are these people,” said Matayitayi.
The group tasked to investigate approached one of the illegal operators at the rank on Friday, he said. “The man was armed. He tried to flee and as the investigators got closer to him he fired shots at them, injuring one taxi driver.”
Matayitayi said a similar incident occurred a year ago when 75 illegal taxi operators tried to take over the rank.
“It was becoming a war and because we were concerned about the safety of our passengers the Cata and Congress of Democratic Taxi Association (Codeta) agreed to let the illegal operators join in and share the routes with them,” he said.
Matayitayi said he suspected the same thing was happening now, but said he had to investigate whether yesterday’s shooting was linked to the illegal taxi operation.
Blue Downs Community Policing Forum chairperson Reginald Maart said he believed the murder could be related to increased gang activity.
“There was a shooting incident on Friday between taxi drivers in Delft, but at this stage we don’t know if the latest shooting is related to it,” Maart said.
The provincial department of transport said it was aware of the situation in Delft.
Siphesihle Dube, spokesperson for Transport MEC Donald Grant, said the department would work with police to bring those responsible for the violence to justice.
Dube said the promotion of safe operations in the minibus taxi industry was a priority and was controlled using effective industry regulation, as required by the National Land Transport Act.