Time for taxi talks transparency, please

THANK you to Lindsay Muller of Plumstead for her comments on September 20 (“Come clean on strike” – Cape Times). It is refreshing to finally get a new perspective regarding exactly what citizens are thinking about the taxi industry.

Whereas I almost always find myself pleading with people to think deeper about why certain events take place within the taxi industry, I am pleasantly surprised to find at least one citizen who has given it thought and expressed a motivation behind the recent strike action.

The comments about a debate that includes all stakeholders is spot on. This attitude of taxi talks taking place behind closed doors by “representatives” of the taxi industry just doesn’t satisfy citizens or operators within the taxi industry.

MEC Donald Grant, Brett Heron and mayor Patricia de Lille are duty bound to satisfy a call for transparency and solutions that work for the industry. When there are comments that the industry is volatile and uncooperative and it’s simply chalked up as behavioural problems of the taxi industry, then that is the time to ask the questions.

Taxi operators are businessmen and women who are employing thousands in the industry. Their concerns are real, simply being a reactive government and pacifying citizen and taxi operators, without a real effort of engagement is simply no longer going to cut it. Well done Lindsay, let’s keep the conversation going until we see the change we need to build an effective, efficient and sustainable public transport operator in the taxi industry that can make Cape Town proud. Basil Nagel Cape Town