Santaco forging ahead with plans to establish co-operative bank

THE SA National Taxi Association (Santaco) is forging ahead with a proposal to establish a co-operative bank for the taxi industry in a bid to become a stand-alone funding institution independent of South African banks.

The proposal was made by the taxi industry some years ago, and its proponents canvassed support for it during the 2020 national taxi indaba, hosted by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula.

Abner Tsebe, Santaco leader in the City of Tshwane, dismissed suggestions that the bank proposal was shelved and that it was doomed to fail like a previous initiative by the industry to start an airline.

Tsebe said the R8 billion taxi industry had huge potential to be self-sufficient by taking over “the economy” through the formation of “something like a spider web, which will include creating our own bank, service stations and fuel stations”.

He said the project was high on the industry's agenda, but it was put on hold due to the ongoing election processes for new leadership in the regions, provinces and national structure.

The agenda to form a bank, Tsebe said, would be attended to in earnest in May following the election processes. He said the ball was in the court of the taxi industry after it was given the go-ahead by the government to start a co-operative bank following the 2020 taxi indaba.

The industry was still grappling with problems of disunity, but it was working hard to address these.

“One of the challenges in the taxi industry is lack of unity. The government is waiting for us to move, and we can't go to the government in four groups with everyone wanting to have their own recognition. We are working hard to resolve those problems. But I can give an assurance that by the end of this year, we will be able to put something tangible on the table,” Tsebe said.

He said the industry was guarding against making the same mistakes committed when it proposed starting an airline. “We have learnt from that mistake. We want people with expertise to come and assist, but we want this to be real now. We don't want it to be like a talk shop, and we end up not doing it at all.”

To make the dream of a co-operative bank a reality, Tsebe said the industry had brought in the requisite skills and expertise.

“We can't do it on our own. We need expertise and skills to make them a success. There are a lot of people who are coming on board.”

Reflecting on the rationale behind the proposed bank, he said: “Remember how co-operative banks worked during the apartheid regime?

“They were able to assist their members like in the farming industry. Now we must be able to come up with our own bank where we will be able to fund our own people.”

He said it was important to have the bank because the established banks had a tendency to blacklist customers who could not afford to service their debts.

“We want to avoid a situation whereby people are being blacklisted. If you take funding from normal banks and you don't pay as expected, you are in trouble, and you will end up being blacklisted.”

Funding for development, he said, was the main problem faced by the taxi industry.

“A co-operative bank will assist our members. Other banks are even trying to assist us. We want to have something like your Discovery Bank and the Tyme Bank.”