Taxi violence must be nipped in the bud
The scourge of taxi violence invariably leaves in its wake loss of innocent lives and untold devastation to families who have lost breadwinners and parents who leave behind orphans.
In the last week, the Daily Dispatch, as a corporate citizen, hosted a dialogue in Mthatha where stakeholders were afforded a platform for frank and robust dialogue. The various speakers reflected critically on the underlying drivers of the conflict.
When in May 1999, then Minister of Transport, Mac Maharaj, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the taxi industry as represented by the South African Taxi Council (Sataco), the first body established to unify the industry across association lines and the predecessor of Santaco, the air was pregnant with expectation. Indeed, it was a momentous occasion and a culmination of a protracted process that began with the National Taxi Task Team in 1995.
This new dawn was meant to tackle the root cause of taxi violence and end the bloody rivalry over routes. Lo and behold, 19 years on we have come full circle and have only scraped the surface in finding a lasting solution to this deadly rivalry.
Having had the privilege of being witness to most of the milestones to transform, empower and regulate the taxi industry, the Mthatha dialogue left me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth.
While decisive intervention of lawenforcement authorities must result in those who pull the trigger and issue the orders behind bars, both the industry and government must play their respective roles. It became evident that the commitment of the industry to find each other and work towards a sustainable solution is at best lukewarm and at worst questionable. An analogy used by one of the industry leaders about wayward children was utterly shocking and demonstrated a dangerous attitude that is not assisting the process.
Similarly, government’s acknowledgement that the manner in which operating licences are issued by the province is at odds with the law can only be described as scandalous. Herein lies the root of the problem.
Despite agreement with the taxi industry at large to end the stranglehold of associations on the issuing of operating licences and allow this process to be only guided by transport plans developed by municipalities, the Eastern Cape continues to allow associations to dictate who must be issued with an operating licence or not. The consequence of this is a saturated industry with supply that outstrips demand because travel demand management practices are sacrificed at the altar for expediency.
Both government officials and lawmakers appear paralysed by fear of some form of retribution from the taxi industry if they push too hard in enforcing the law. This is not an option in a society that upholds and respects the rule of law.
If anything, compliance with the law is not an option for any citizen and this principle that underpins our constitutional order must be enforced with vigour by all law-enforcement authorities. In 1999 the Eastern Cape Provincial Legislature passed a law to regulate this industry and operationalise national and provincial transport policy.
That law was never enforced and dust accumulated over its many pages and its contents overtaken by events over the years. Despite this, no government has the luxury to pass a law and simply forget about it. A law is meant to be enforced, and if no longer relevant, the Legislature must repeal such law. It is unheard of that a law can simply be ignored as if it was never passed. Perhaps it is time that lawmakers ask the hard questions about implementation of laws they are called upon to pass and hold those responsible for their implementation accountable.
Ranking facilities dermacated along association lines is a recipe for turf wars and government should permanently close these and force these warring associations to work together. A bitter pill it may be to swallow, but a necessary ingredient for a lasting solution.
MEC Tikana must be commended for leading the charge from the front and lay down the law to these associations, but her words must be closely followed by tough action. Her proclamation ending association stickers in the Province, replacing these with a government prescribed uniform sticker must become reality.
Having grown up in the dusty streets of Mdantsane and having lived through the 1983 Egerton bus boycott, I am among the millions of South Africans who believe that a safe, affordable, efficient, integrated and reliable public transport is not a pipe dream, but a reality within our grasp.
The dawn of such a reality can only come to pass if leadership of the taxi industry at all levels accepts accountability for actions of their members and government takes its duty to protect all its citizens seriously by not only rigorously enforcing the law, but also create incentives to transform and empower the industry.
We must all accept that the underlying cause of conflict in the taxi industry is the economics.
This is an industry that exists on the fringes of the formal economy, yet it has a dominant market share in excess of 60% compared to all other public transport modes. The NTTT recommended that cooperatives be recognised as the preferred empowerment vehicle of the industry as part of the formalisation process. Membership of co-operatives by individual operators would then enable government to provide the industry with economic incentives, including subsidy. Despite government’s acceptance of the final recommendations of the NTTT in 1996, it has taken almost 30 years to restructure the bus subsidy system and enable the taxi industry to benefit from these subsidies.
The Mthatha dialogue has laid bare the absence of constructive engagement on these critical building blocks of a sustainable public transport system in the Eastern Cape.
The time for hollow rhetoric must be a thing of the past and conduct that places at risk the lives of innocent people should not be tolerated. Those who espouse violence must be met with the full might of the law.
Municipalities must similarly play their role and conduct meaningful and effective public transport planning as required by the law, while the Province should immediately ensure that the issuing of operating licences follow the spirit and the letter of the law. Anything short of these will be nothing but hot air.
Lawrence Venkile