Police escort for fearful taxi boss
Body not fighting with anyone, chairman says
Bodies continue to pile up for the Ivory Park Taxi Association (Ipta) after 10 of their taxi drivers were among the 11 people who were gunned down in KwaZulu-Natal at the weekend.
Johannes Mkonza, Ipta’s chairman, spoke to Sowetan yesterday and was quick to dismiss speculation that the recent spate of murders could be linked to the association.
This was moments after he arrived at their offices in Midrand, Johannesburg, escorted by at least seven heavily armed policemen attached to the Tactical Response Team.
This was in addition to the bodyguards that are in his employ and other members of the association, believed to be bodyguards, who were on high alert in the vicinity.
When asked about the tight security around him, Mkonza said: “I’ve just asked the police to bring me here. In fact, I must limit my movement until we get to the bottom of this.”
On the recent killings, the Ipta’s boss said: “In the back of my mind I thought maybe the car was mistaken for another car. We are not fighting with anyone. We pride ourselves on our drivers because they are well behaved.”
Mkonza said this was the first time that he experienced such a tragedy in the 15 years he had been in the industry.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said police did not provide security-related activities for individual members of the public. “However, if there is any information of an imminent attack on an individual, police may assist to escort a person for safety reasons until they are satisfied that such a person is safe.”
The recent massacre came after Nkosi Mthembu, a taxi owner, was killed along with brothers Sibongiseni and Bongani Mngoma in Ivory Park on July 12 after they were shot numerous times.
The killings occurred after the drivers attended Mthembu’s funeral in Ematimatolo in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.
The group of drivers were travelling to Johannesburg, along the R74 between Colenso and Weenen, when they were ambushed and their taxi shot 255 times by a group of armed assailants.
A cousin of one of the 11 taxi drivers who were killed, told of how he frantically tried to call him moments after he heard that they were ambushed by a group of gunmen.
Sbongakonke Dlomo said he called his cousin Mzamo Dlomo six times but couldn’t reach him.
“A relative called me and told me that the driver was killed. I asked him if my brother was OK but he would not tell me. I called other people who confirmed to me that my brother was also killed,” Dlomo said.
He said he last saw his cousin alive on Friday evening when he left for KZN to bury Mthembu.
“He was supposed to leave with another taxi but when he called, the person said he would leave at 12am. He then called the driver of the taxi he used, who said he was about to leave. He then asked him to come and fetch him. He left at 9pm.”
Meanwhile, a taxi boss was shot dead yesterday morning as he was driving out of a relative's house in Alexandra.
The man who could not be identified until his next of kin were informed belonged to the Alexandra Randburg Midrand and Sandton Taxi Association.
Captain Steve Malatjie said they were investigating a case of murder. He said no arrests have been made.
Eleven people are shot dead in a minibus taxi while travelling back from a funeral. By all indications it is a taxi-industry related ambush. The victims all worked in the industry, most of them members of the Ivory Park Taxi Association. The man whose funeral they were returning from in KwaZulu-Natal, was also involved in the taxi business.
Images of the bullet-riddled minibus suggest that the assailants ceaselessly opened fire indiscriminately until they were satisfied that no one would come out of the vehicle alive. They used high-calibre weapons.
The ambush came just days after the murder of three other members of this association.
There is clearly a deadly conflict involving this taxi organisation.
Yet the association’s leadership would have us believe that it is as much in the dark as the rest of society as to the motive and the identity of the killers. It has pleaded ignorance of any tensions or conflict that may exist among its members or between its members and those of any other association.
It is hard to believe that so many lives can be lost and that hitmen can go to such great lengths to kill so many people in one go without anyone knowing what the source of the conflict is.
By knowing the source of the conflict, the police would be much closer to identifying those who ordered the attack, as well as their hired assassins.
However, the silence of those with this kind information is helping the perpetrators get away with mass murder, literally.
There is an unhealthy culture in the industry of not co-operating with law enforcement agencies on criminal matters. Instead of getting police involved, some taxi owners and drivers believe in taking the law into their own hands, hunting down and attacking those they believe to be responsible for the deaths of their comrades. This kind of vigilantism can only beget more blood-letting and, in most instances, it is the innocent commuters who end up losing their lives.
As much as the police service has its own weaknesses, it is still the only agency authorised by our constitution to investigate crimes like this. The association and anyone else who may have information that can lead to the arrest of the murderers must give that information to the police.