Knysna taxis keep Covid regulations
Are Knysna taxi owners and operators observing lockdown regulations? With this question in mind, Knysna-Plett Herald took a taxi to town on Friday last week and found a general adherence to the conditions set for the industry by national Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula under Level 3.
According to these conditions, taxi operators could only carry passengers at 70% capacity but last month, the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco) told taxi operators to fully load their vehicles.
On Sunday, president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that taxis could now load their vehicles at 100% capacity for local trips and 70% for long distances.
When KPH took a trip from Flenters in White Location on Friday, the driver got out to check if I had my mask on and he then sanitised my hands. A woman who had no mask was turned away by the driver, who told her that she was not allowed to get into the taxi without a mask.
One of the community members who was sitting at the front, after calculating the money and handing back the change, took out her own sanitiser and sprayed herself and those close to her.
All this time, people were wearing their masks and kept on sanitising. When going to town the taxi had about nine passengers.
For the trip back to Flenters in another taxi, the driver was spraying those who boarded the minibus with a sanitiser and checked all for mask-wearing. He loaded the vehicle with only 10 passengers despite a carrying capacity of 15.
People had their masks on until they reached their destination and after passing the money they would sanitise their hands.
Speaking about their operations, Uncedo Taxi Association chairperson Thobelani Swartbooi said they were carrying the 70% capacity that was announced by the transport minister despite Santaco's directions. "We stuck to the 70% until it was announced that we can carry a full load. There are conditions that all the passengers must wear their masks and every taxi must have a sanitiser. We turn back all those that are taking chances and are not wearing masks," he said.
Swartbooi added they are happy with the President's call to load full capacity and warned operators not to ruin this concession towards the industry. "The ball is in our court, it depends on us whether we stick to the regulations or not. All that is wanted from us is to monitor whether our taxis have sanitisers and the passengers wear their masks," he said.
We stuck to the 70% until it was announced that we can carry a full load.