Uber, Bolt drivers retaliate against Santaco
Brave young cadres were freedom fighters, not terrorists or rebels
UBER and Bolt drivers have retaliated against the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in Durban after reports of intimidation and demands for money from members of the association.
Members of the South African e-hailers Association (SAEHA) reportedly blocked roads in and out of Mega City in umlazi on Friday after receiving threats and being intimidated by taxi operators.
The association also reported that members had their vehicles impounded.
Uber drivers also conducted a peaceful convoy to Durban North police station where they delivered a memorandum of their complaints.
The police are said to have given drivers an emergency number to call when such incidents occurred. However, the drivers were still unhappy.
One of the drivers, who did not want to be named, said: “We were given a number by the police to report harassment, but that is something we usually do and the police do not help us. We are worried about our safety.”
“We are not striking,” said another driver. “We are trying to get together as drivers to figure out what we can do about the situation and stop the
harassment. We barely make R8 000 a month because of Covid. Where are
we supposed to get R3 000 or R6 000 to pay Santaco?”
Musa Ndlovu of the Qina Mshayeli Taxi Association said: “It is not Santaco members who are harassing Uber and Bolt drivers. Santaco has denied these allegations because we have established that these acts are done by opportunistic criminals.”
Santaco provincial spokesperson Sfiso Shangase said: “The association is unaware at the provincial level of the pronouncement of the thousands
of rand e-hailers are being asked to pay, but the regions have independence and sovereignty to make certain decisions to allow for the smooth running of operations. There are still discussions under way to ensure that e-hailing drivers are protected in areas where there is too much influx of both e-hailers and taxi drivers.”
Shangase said another dispute was that Uber drivers were not required to have permits and could drive anywhere, while minibus taxi drivers had designated routes.
Uber spokesperson Amy Fuller said: “Taxi operators cannot monopolise Uber routes as Uber does not have dedicated specific routes anywhere in the country. A majority of drivers-partners using the Uber app have already completed the requisite steps in applying for their operating licences under the current National Land Transport Bill. However, the process of issuing operating licences has been delayed as there is a backlog with the relevant departments due to the pandemic. The frustration with bottlenecks is felt by everyone in the industry, not just with drivers using the Uber app.”
The provincial Department of Transport said the incidents were regrettable and should be resolved peacefully. “There is no one who should take the law into their own hands, including illegally collecting money from other transport operators. The matter is serious and we will be engaging with Santaco on the behaviour of its members. We encourage them to report the matter to the police. As the government we are deeply engaged in building a public transport system that is safe, competitive and regulated,” said spokesperson Kwanele Ncalane.
SAEHA said a grievance had been lodged with Uber, who had partnered with a private security company should their drivers have their vehicles impounded or be intimidated.
Uber said it had reached out to the ethekwini Municipality about a meeting it had planned with Santaco and taxi operators. However there had not yet been a response.
MYANMAR’S military leader said yesterday his junta would hold a new election and hand power to the winner as tens of thousands of people took to the streets for a third day to protest against the coup that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing was speaking in a televised address, his first to the country since last Monday’s military takeover. He repeated claims that last November’s election, won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, had been fraudulent.
But in the capital Naypyitaw, crowds of protesters chanted anti-coup slogans and told police they should serve the people not the military.
Police turned water cannon on protesters and warned that they might use live fire if the demonstrators did not disperse, but the protests ended without bloodshed.
Demonstrations also took place in the main city Yangon and elsewhere. Gatherings have so far been largely peaceful, unlike bloody crackdowns on previous protests, in 1988 and 2007 in particular when hundreds were killed.
The generals had already tried to justify their takeover on the grounds of election fraud – rejected by the election committee – and had promised a new poll.
Min Aung Hlaing reiterated that position in his address yesterday, saying the junta would form a “true and disciplined democracy” different from previous eras of military rule.
The election committee must be reformed, he said. It had used the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse and did not allow fair campaigning, he said. “We will have a multiparty election and we will hand the power to the one who wins in that election, according to the rules of democracy,” he said, giving no time frame but the junta has said a state of emergency will last one year.
Upping the stakes in the crisis, state media had earlier signalled possible action against protesters.
“We, the whole people who value justice, freedom, equality, peace and safety, not only refuse to accept the lawless wrongdoers but also request that they be prevented and removed through co-operation,” the MRTV television station said in a comment that was later read out on a military-owned network.
Calls to join protests and to back a campaign of civil disobedience have grown louder and more organised since the coup, which drew widespread international condemnation.
Thousands also marched in the south-eastern city of Dawei and in the Kachin state capital in the far north, the massive crowds reflecting a rejection of military rule by diverse ethnic groups.
In Yangon, a group of saffron-robed monks marched in the vanguard of protests with workers and students. They flew multicoloured Buddhist flags
alongside red banners in the league’s colour. The protests are the biggest since the “Saffron Revolution” led by monks in 2007, which led over subsequent years to the military’s gradual withdrawal from politics after decades of direct rule.
Some government workers have joined doctors and teachers in rallying to the call for civil disobedience and strikes.
“We request government staff from all departments not to attend work from Monday (yesterday),” said activist Min Ko Naing, a veteran of the 1988 demonstrations that brought Suu Kyi to prominence.
Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for campaigning for democracy and spent nearly 15 years under house arrrest as she struggled to end almost half a century of army rule.
The 75-year-old has been kept incommunicado since Min Aung
Hlaing seized power. Suu Kyi faces charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkies and is being held in police detention until February 15. Her lawyer said he has not been allowed to see her.
The daughter of the former British colony’s independence hero Aung San, Suu Kyi remains hugely popular at home despite damage to her international reputation over the plight of the Muslim Rohingya minority.
While Western governments have condemned the coup, there has been little in the way of concrete action to press the generals.
The UN Security Council has called for the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees and the US is considering targeted sanctions.
Britain and the EU said yesterday they were requesting that a special session of the UN Human Rights Council be held to address the crisis.
EVERYONE enjoying South Africa’s democracy, must cease referring to the people who sacrificed for our freedom, as “terrorists” or “rebels”. Instead, they should fittingly call them “freedom fighters”.
After 27 years into South Africa’s democracy, one shudders at the National Party’s past obsession, post its May 26, 1948 election victory, under its dour leader Dr Daniel Francois (DF) Malan.
The NP’S malicious imposition of “apartheid” as its government policy, crudely endorsed institutionalised racism. The absurdity of such a decision was driven by racial bias against the majority black populace. It was eventually resisted, for four disconsolate decades.
Such officialised racism ceased only when the ANC won elections, on April 27, 1994, henceforth commencing a democratic future. Political scientist Dan O’meara’s choice of title for his book, Forty Lost Years (1996), was not far-fetched.
To its victims, the apartheid era conjures bitterness. I shared this emotion while reading about a myriad unsung freedom fighters, labelled in the archives, as “terrorists” or “rebels”. Although affiliations to other politicfiaglhptearrstiiens tehxeisatr,tircelfeerisenlicmeitteodftroeebdloacmk foot soldiers affiliated to the ANC.
The activists pledged to realise the Freedom Charter’s 10 clauses, adopted in Kliptown, Soweto, in 1955. These were mostly young black men and women, who risked their lives by nicodemously exiting (skipping) South Africa, to undergo military training or “armed struggle”. This involved plenty furtive infiltrations, to attack targets in South Africa. Trained cadres operated under ANC’S military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), translated as “Spear of the Nation” and formed on December 16, 1961, after the ANC and the PAC were banned, on April 8, 1960, by the then governor-general, Charles Robberts (CR) Swart’s NP government of bigots.
Mindful of all the above, on January 25 this year, I read a phone message, from my maternal cousin, Ms Thandeka Beyers. “Good day family. May I share this special day with you 25 January 1980, my father along with his 2 cadres/comrades/childhood fbreieknndoswwneares tkhilele‘sdi.lvtehrteoynw3e’ r(esillavteerrtotno Siege). There are many unsung heroes whose legacy should never die”.
As a black South African, and part of the droves of those brusquely born in exile (in Morogoro, Tanzania), I was unaware of what Thandeka’s transient memorial message brought afore. Before her message, the only family casualty whom I knew as a freedom fighter was my paternal uncle, Montgomery Michael Lenepa Moloi (19591986). His nom de guerre was Kopano Leabua, part of the Alldays 6 also known as the Eendvogeplan killings, of July 10, 1986, executed by apartheid’s security branch, in Limpopo.
This is why Thandeka’s message incited me to seek details about the “Silverton siege”, for personal (family) and professional (social science) reasons.
Useful sources found included articles, books, ANC papers and Truth and Reconciliation reports.
Here is the gist of what is claimed to have transpired that day. Three “terrorists/rebels” tried to rob Volkskas Bank, in Silverton, Pretoria. They apprehended 25 white people as hostages, until their demands were met.
The ordeal lasted from 1.30pm to 7pm. The five lives lost comprised the “terrorists/rebels” and two hostages (Mrs Cindy Anderson and Mrs Annetjie de Klerk). Although the death toll and duration reported is accurate, such narratives are disingenuous. First, “terrorists/rebels”, was a derogatory reference to three young black men (haolloadgefrdie2n6dysefarrosmoldd)i,ewpkhlooowfe, rseocwheitldo-.
They were Thandeka’s father, the commander of the trio Wilfred Nzamela Madela (Nzo), Humphrey Thamsanqa Makhubo (Mateu) and Fanie/stephen Mafoko (named Zindile Ramakoa in ANC’S Sechaba Journal, of
December 1982:7). They were trained in Angola and were part of the Transvaal Urban Machinery, commanded by cadre George Molebatsi. Hostages were never part of MK policy, so their part in the saga was sadly ill-fated.
Third, the alleged demands, as dictated to hostage Mrs Phoebe Chatwind, dismiss any financial interest, instead espousing their political agenda. They demanded the release of political prisoners, namely comrades Nelson Mandela and James Daniel Mange. They then evoked reminders about the “Pietermaritzburg 12”, Solomon Mahlangu and the Freedom Charter. Their demand for a helicopter was a superfluous addition, in case of a utopian escape. The freedom fighters are buried in Doornkop cemetery, in Jabulani, Soweto.
The ANC secured sculptor Professor Pitika Ka Ntuli, to lead their memorial project.a film about the Silverton Siege is expected, as part of cinematographer Mandlakayise Walter Dube Jnr’s ‘legacy series’, dubbed Legends of Freedom. Dube’s portfolio includes the co-written theatre production, The Rivonia Trial (2010) and the movie Kalushi (2016).
In closing, let’s ominously muse upon the judge’s remarks, when endionngnthoevesmilvbeerrto2n7,a1n9d8s0o: e“ktmheekraeabreltsrioafl today, are the leaders of tomorrow,”