Taxi industry not ‘a field of war’, leader insists
Taxi industry leader Phillip Taaibosch insisted on Monday that his organisation was in control of its members‚ despite ongoing violence and killings.
“Yes‚ we are in control of the industry – we don’t know what the quarrel was about‚” he told radio station 702 on Monday‚ in reaction to the night-time massacre of 11 people in a minibus taxi at the weekend in KwaZulu-Natal.
“What needs to be done is to go to the ground to investigate what has happened. Serious action has to be taken.”
Taaibosch is president of the SA National Taxi Council (Santaco), an umbrella body that governs the structure of the taxi industry in SA.
He said it was not true that the taxi industry had become a “field of war”.
“The entire country does not have this war,” he said.
“This is happening in a particular area and that is between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.”
On Saturday‚ 11 people linked to the Gauteng-based Ivory Park Taxi Association were killed when the minibus they were travelling in was ambushed by gunmen between Colenso and Weenen as they were returning home from a colleague’s funeral.
Four people were also critically wounded in the attack.
Ivory Park Taxi Association chair Johannes Mkonza said he was baffled by the shooting.
“Our association is operating in peace. We are not fighting with anyone,” he said.
National police commissioner General Khehla Sitole has activated specialised units to track down and arrest the gunmen‚ giving them a deadline of 72 hours to do so.
Parliament’s police portfolio committee warned that taxi violence has reached crisis levels in the country.
Committee chair Francois Beukman said: “While the committee is cognisant that a proper investigation would need to be undertaken to ascertain the firearms used in perpetrating these crimes‚ it is almost certain illegal firearms were used.”
He said the incident was “a further indication that violence in the taxi industry has now reached crisis levels in the country and a multisectoral intervention strategy must be implemented to effectively deal with this scourge”.
The DA called on KwaZuluNatal transport MEC Mxolisi Kaunda to increase the intelligence capacity within the province’s special taxi violence task team.
“In 2016, MEC Kaunda announced the establishment of a special taxi violence task team in the province,” DA MPL Rafeek Shah said.
“This weekend’s incident raises serious questions around the unit’s capacity and whether the intelligence sphere is sufficiently staffed so that it is able to be proactive and prevent people from dying.”
Shah also said the government must urgently confront the issue of where the weapons that were used in the attack had come from.