Strike a no-go in local taxi industry
Seshego and Mankweng taxis wait for commuters at the Limpopo Mall Taxi Rank.
Limpopo Spokesperson of the National Taxi Alliance, Frans Kgasago believes there was no need to join various taxi associations in various parts of the country that embarked on a nationwide taxi strike on Monday.
Various taxi associations in Gauteng reportedly pulled their vehicles off the road leaving myriads of commuters stranded, which was not the case locally.
Kgasago, who is also the Mankweng Taxi Association’s
Public Relations Officer, stressed they could have lost even more revenue if they had participated in the strike action.
“We are still recovering from the effects of the Coronavirus.
If we had participated in the strike we were going to lose a lot of money. We decided not to bother because we are still in talks with government who says it will subsidise. Negotiations are still ongoing. The Coronavirus has affected everyone badly. It would have been a different story had the minister closed his door completely,” Kgasago said .
Moshita Lekganyane, Spokesperson for the Seshego Polokwane Taxi Association said they were advised by the provincial and the regional office of the
South African National Taxi Council not to participate in the action.
Most of the taxi operators and owners were not happy with the R1,1 billion bailout that government would provide to recoup losses suffered by operators during the lockdown.
The Department of Transport has offered taxi owners R5 000 each in relief to be distributed by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), due to the impact of Covid-19 and the national lockdown, but taxi owners have called for R20 000 each.
The taxis have been limited to 70% capacity as part of the measures imposed by Government since the lockdown period and operators stated the revenue generated from the limited capacity is not adequate to enable them to cover their operational costs.
Most of the taxi associations rejected government’s financial relief offer from Transport
Minister, Fikile Mbalula.
>> “The negotiations
are still ongoing’’ >> ‘We could have lost even more revenue’’