Macleantown transport back on track
ALL modes of transport will resume today in Macleantown while taxi bosses and Mayibuye officials continue to engage in the hope of finding a lasting solution to the dispute over operational routes.
Yesterday morning transport officials met with taxi owners and officials from Mayibuye Transport Corporation in a bid to find resolutions as to how the two entities could work together and share routes.
This comes after residents protested this week, demanding that taxi and bus bosses resolve their disputes over operating routes, as commuters had been caught in the ongoing fight, with some forced to alight from buses and allegedly assaulted.
Transport spokeswoman Khuselwa Rantjie said a short-term agreement was reached for taxis and buses to travel their normal routes as discussed according to their respective permits while discussions continued.
“The meetings are ongoing and for now we have pleaded with everyone to work amicably and stick to the agreed schedule.
“Tensions are very high in the sector and taxi operators have raised new matters which we still need time for to address.
“Everyone has their licences with the terms and conditions and times which transport operators are allowed to travel and at the moment, taxi owners fear there are more buses than what there are people travelling along the routes.”
Rantjie said Mayibuye had already cut down on a few buses to accommodate the taxi industry.
“We already have an existing agreement which, according to the taxi authorities still needs to be amended and we are trying to work towards a mutual agreement among both parties,” she said.
This week a 29-year-old taxi driver was arrested for intimidating and assaulting passengers who had boarded a bus in Nxarhuni village. He was released on R500 bail.
On Thursday, taxi bosses agreed to form a task team to promote peace and reduce the killings of taxi bosses throughout the province at the provincial transport head office in Schornville where they were locked in a meeting with transport MEC Weziwe Tikana for most of the day.
South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) chairwoman Noluntu Mahashe said she had proposed the meeting, pleading with the MEC to intervene in the ongoing killings of taxi bosses and constant fighting over taxi routes. —