Taximen, City to meet after bus hijacking

Drop-off point causes tension

A Tshwane Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system bus was on Tuesday hijacked as a result of friction between taxi drivers and the City over drop-off points.

MMC for roads and transport in Tshwane, Sheila Lynn Senkubuge, said the A Re Yeng bus was hijacked and taken to Stinkwater with passengers on board.

This resulted in the BRT operations being halted at Bloed Street Mall‚ Marabastad and Rainbow Junction.

Operations resumed two hours later after the Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) sent reinforcements.

The metro cops later recovered the bus and escorted it back to Rainbow Junction.

“The City has called an urgent meeting to put the [taxi] associations on terms to ensure that all their drivers honour the agreement entered into on their behalf, failing which the City of Tshwane will pursue legal action to rectify the situation and ensure that commuters get the services to which they are entitled‚” Senkubuge said.

Last month‚ the City entered into a drop-off agreement with taxi associations from Stinkwater, Eersterus, and Hammanskraal – these are Seta, GHSTA and Hato.

The agreement stipulated that the associations’ taxis would no longer proceed into the city centre from their point of origin but would drop off passengers at Wonderboom Junction (shopping centre) in the morning and pick them up there at a single trip fare of R17.

The A Re Yeng buses would pick up those passengers at Wonderboom Junction and transport them to the CBD‚ up to Hatfield‚ for a single trip fare of R8. This arrangement became effective on January 8.

Senkubuge said on Tuesday, taxis were forced by the City to drop passengers off at Wonderboom Junction as per the agreement.

Taxi drivers then protested and did not want to load passengers from Wonderboom Junction. They instead referred passengers to a hiking spot adjacent to Wonderboom Junction.