Taxi violence can derail society

There is little new about taxi violence, which rises like a sudden veld fire, the resultant conflagration often including the innocents among the 15 million plus South Africans who rely on the flawed system for their daily commute. The latest outbursts have come to light in the sprawling townships which go to make up Soweto, the epicentre surfacing in Orlando West and Mofolo.

In a largely self-regulated industry estimated to generate R40 billion a year, armed confrontations often accompany disputes over the more lucrative routes or pitched battles to deny any intrusion onto the turf of established taxi associations. In the past six months, a dozen people have been killed in Soweto’s taxi wars.

The roots go deep, far deeper than the hold the notorious Msomi Gang held over Alexandra township’s fleet of large American cars in the ’50s, which used to ply their overloaded way into the City of Gold.

The catalyst, though, was the introduction of the minibus people carrier to this country around the early ’80s. Suddenly, township dwellers were freed from the inconvenience of the linear spokes into their home areas imposed by the bus and rail services; in consequence, freeing vast numbers of people – locked into remote locations by the horror of apartheid’s forced removals – from the tiresome trek to the closest bus terminus or railway station.

The minibus taxis offered a stop-and-go service directly to where they lived and, perhaps more importantly, gave the township commuter lateral movement.

The trickle of travellers became a stream and then a tsunami. Along with it came mountains of cash from fares and the inevitable violence as the power of the associations grew. Boycotts, blockades and overt threats to public law and order demonstrated this muscle. It’s a force that Soweto scarily proves remains unleashed, unregulated and violent to today.