Taxi drivers unhappy with pirates

SOME Taxi drivers operating in Lusaka’s Central business district (CBD) have accused the Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) of failing to stop pirate taxis in the transport sector which had continued to grow at an alarming rate.

The taxi drivers have called on RTSA to move in quickly and start impounding pirate taxis.

In an interview with the Daily Nation yesterday, James Mbewe a taxi driver from town centre said it was unfair that unregistered taxis were operating freely without RTSA taking any action against them.

Mr Mbewe said unregistered taxis should be impounded because owners of the vehicles have failed to follow the rules and regulations. Mr Mbewe explained that currently there were four kinds of taxis operating on the streets including the fully registered ones with the approved reflective ribbons.

Mr Mbewe said only registered taxis paid taxes to government and local authorities while the other three categories operated illegally as they did not comply with the laws governing the public transport sector.

“We have four types of taxis on the road: registered taxis with red plates and ribbons, with uniformed drivers, the blue painted vehicles with red plates but no ribbons; the unregistered pirate taxis and now the Miles Sampa yellow Metro Cabs without red plates, no ribbons and drivers do not wear uniforms,” he said.

Another driver operating from Lumumba bus station charged that RTSA had allowed illegality in the taxi business because the law was against taxis which failed to formalize their obligations as public service vehicles.

Carious Hamweene said most unregistered taxis were being driven by unlicensed drivers and had fake licenses, adding that police officers were among the culprits with vehicles operating as unregistered taxis.

Mr Hamweene said some customers preferred hiring unregistered cars which encouraged car owners not to register their vehicles as taxis.

Mr Hamweene wondered how the agency had managed to apply the law on mini buses but failed to do the same with pirate taxis.

And Mr Hamweene has since appealed to the general public to comply with RTSA regulations to avoid being in conflict with traffic law enforcement officers.

“There has been an increase in the number of taxis on the streets but only a few were registered as authorized operators, hence lawlessness on the streets had also contributed to the high number of accidents and failure to comply with traffic rules and regulations,” said Mr Hamweene.