Taxi council has great hopes for sticker campaign
About 50 taxis operating from the Tembisa Long Distance Taxi Association, Tembisa Local Taxi Association, Birchleigh Aokmor Taxi Association, Tembisa Pretoria Taxi Association and Kempton Park Taxi Association had the new sticker affixed to their front and back.
Members of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in Gauteng gathered at Aokmor Taxi Rank on September 21 to witness the Ekurhuleni regional launch of its new sticker campaign.
About 50 taxis operating from the Tembisa Long Distance Taxi Association, Tembisa Local Taxi Association, Birchleigh Aokmor Taxi Association, Tembisa Pretoria Taxi Association and Kempton Park Taxi Association had the new sticker affixed to their front and back.
Serving out of the five regions in Gauteng Province, Ekurhuleni Region was the last to receive the new sticker.
The sticker is meant to make taxis operating under Santaco easily identifiable on the road.
Executives of taxi associations from the Sedibeng, Western Gauteng, Tshwane, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni regions attended the event.
Santaco’s provincial public relations officer Midday Mali led the proceedings and welcomed the attendees.
The chairman of Santaco Ekurhuleni Region, Peter Mashego, said they are going to ensure that before the end of the year, all taxis operating in the region will display the new sticker.
“As the Ekurhuleni Region, we’ve greatly welcomed this campaign, since it is going to help us differentiate the taxis that are operating lawfully on the roads.
“We’ve been struggling to deal with complaints from our commuters about criminal behaviour happening in taxis. They complained that they were robbed or raped by our taxi operators, but with no proof of whether the taxi involved in the crime belonged to us,” added Mashego.
Mashego emphasised that the new Santaco taxi sticker will make a difference, because by the end of this year there will be no taxi registered with the association operating without the sticker.
“We are strongly advising community members to check for the new stickers and registration of the vehicle when commuting. This will help you to identify the taxi whenever a crime is committed by the operator. And it will also make it easy for us to trace the taxi.
“We are tired of criminals posing as taxi drivers and taking advantage of commuters. We are an association that supports and cares for the people,” said Mashego.
Mashego said they believe criminals are taking advantage of passengers who catch taxis at the roadside rather than at taxi ranks.
“As the association we will play our part, but commuters must also play their part. They must ensure that they don’t just get into a vehicle without checking whether it has the correct identification. Registered taxis have association membership stickers and identification numbers on the left side of the vehicle,” said Mashego.
Mali said they are taking over three pillars – redefine, reposition and restructure – in the association.
“Our taxis need to be seen on the roads. And, mostly importantly, we are trying to build a good relationship between taxi associations and commuters in the communities,” said Mali.
