Strike can hurt matrics
PEACEFUL MARCH: DEPARTMENT ASKS DRIVERS TO RECONSIDER ACTION
Pupils will battle to get to exam centres for today’s English paper.
Tshwane taxi commuters and matriculants writing final exams should seek alternative transport as taxi drivers in the city embark on strike action led by the National Taxi Alliance (NTA).
According to the NTA, the march was prompted by Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi’s “failure” to address issues in the industry and adhere to three meeting requests with the alliance, spokesperson Theo Malele said.
“It is disheartening to announce that the minister has reneged on the promises he made to the NTA, as he has not called for a single meeting to unfold the process to address the concerns and grievances of the taxi industry.
“Having exhausted all avenues to try and have our grievances listened to in our quest to provide our commuters a safe, affordable and comfortable taxi transport service, we have decided to march peacefully to deliver our memorandum of grievances.”
The alliance and taxi drivers will be marching to the department of transport in Pretoria, before moving to the Union Buildings.
They will gather at the Putco depot in Marabastad and proceed to hand over their memorandums, affecting several roads in the city centre, Tshwane metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said.
“Metro police officers will be deployed to monitor the march and all affected streets. Motorists are advised to avoid the affected streets and use alternative routes such as Nana Sita, Francis Baard and Boom streets.”
But the department of education has urged the alliance to reconsider their planned strike action for the sake of matric pupils who would be writing their English Paper 2 National Senior Certificate (NSC) today. Many pupils relied on the taxi industry to get to school and back and the strike action could severely impact on their ability to get to school.
“We have strongly condemned other organisations who sought to compromise the examinations by affecting pupils’ ability to get to their examinations timeously. We hope the NTA will be more considerate of matriculants who have worked hard for 12 years to be able to sit for these examinations.
“The NSC exams will finish on November 28 and until then, we urge all entities to work together to ensure that these examinations proceed uninterrupted,” said Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga.