Sort out taxi thugs, SAPS urged

AFTER weeks of being terrorised by “taxi thugs”, the community of oThongathi (Tongaat) is taking a stand and calling for police to intervene before a disaster strikes.

For several weeks, taxi operators have been pulling lift clubs off the road and have been intimidating, and in some cases assaulting, the drivers, demanding they follow them to the taxi rank, where they face further intimidation.

The taxi operators have blocked off the exit points in the area and have also been stopping lift clubs taking children to school. They demand to see per- mits and tell lift-club operators to get off the roads.

Concerned residents called for a meeting on Friday to address the issue. They have accused local SAPS of not protecting them because several residents tried to lay charges but were turned away.

“Tongaat SAPS said they could not open cases but would only file incident reports because people were unable to identify the suspects.

“This is happening on a daily basis and lift-club operators are living in fear. The people who are meant to be protecting us from such violence and intimidation are pushing us away.

“So who do we turn to?” said Chris Sunker, who spoke on behalf of the group.

At Friday’s meeting the residents demanded that the station commander of the Tongaat SAPS should intervene and do something before someone was killed.

They said that they were upset by how ignorant the police have been towards the situation.

Police spokesman Major Thulani Zwane said if there had been such incidents the people involved needed to contact the police to assist them.

He said if the allegations of police refusing to open dockets were correct, people needed to discuss their issues with the area’s cluster commander of police.