Passenger shot dead inside taxi
THE police are investigating the murder of a passenger who was shot and killed inside a minibus taxi in Site C, Khayelitsha, leaving other passengers in shock.
Police spokesperson Andrè Traut said an unknown male passenger was shot and killed inside a taxi in Lansdowne Road in BT Block Khayelitsha by unknown suspects at about 3.10pm on Wednesday.
Traut said that after the incident, the suspects fled on foot. He said the circumstances were being investigated and the suspects had yet to be arrested.
SA National Taxi Council provincial spokesperson Gershon Geyer said it had come to their attention that the shooting was between two passengers. He condemned any form of violence in the taxi industry.
Khayelitsha Community Policing Forum (CPF) provincial chairperson Fransina Lukas said the incident was shocking, and that criminals were becoming more brazen and seemed not to care about the law.
“The police must make an arrest soon and the perpetrator must be brought to book, and the courts need to deal with the perpetrator if found guilty to make an example to others who might be contemplating such heinous crimes,” said Lukas.
ANC provincial spokesperson on transport, Lulama Mvimbi, said the incident had once again exposed the challenge of safety for public transport commuters in the Western Cape, especially in taxis.
“We wish to convey our condolences to the family of the deceased, and call on the taxi industry to beef up its security, particularly installing CCTV cameras in taxi ranks to make it easy to track commuters and thugs who use taxis,” said Mvimbi.
He said the incident also brought to the fore the urgent need for the subsidisation of taxi commuters so that the industry could have enough money to improve the taxi service and security of commuters.