Taxi drivers say hunger a bigger cause for concern than Covid-19

You don’t need to worry about full taxis accelerating the spread of Covid-19, but instead worry about the risk of hunger spreading through families who depend on this industry.

This according to taxi drivers who spoke to The Citizen at the Westgate Taxi Rank, where drivers say despite the relaxation of restrictions under level 3 lockdown, these ‘Quantums’ are barely full more than three times a day, and hunger is always a bad day away.

Elsewhere in Roodepoort, Bosmont Taxi Association drivers say they are not filling their vehicles to capacity because business is still slow, despite schools being open. Passengers are unwilling to wait hours for vehicles to fill up before each trip. It seems despite the fervent fight to get permission to allow taxis to fill to 100% capacity, getting 15 passengers into a taxi is no longer a given in the post Covid-19 reality.

“It is 13:30pm and this is the first load I am about to take,” says Tiyane Maluleke, a 46-year-old driver on the Westgate-Krugersdorp route. “We are not tired at the end of the day because there are virtually no trips. We are always at home nowadays. Our wives must be happy,” he jokes.

“To tell the truth – there is no money because people are no longer going to work. Even if we are allowed to load 100%, the damage is done. We can barely afford petrol so all we are doing is for survival.”

Drivers at this rank say it’s unfair that despite being workers like “everybody else”, working long hours for little pay, government is not giving them the same protection from the financial effects of this pandemic.

“I have five children and a wife. They all depend on me. I don’t want my children to end up turning to nyaope and other things because of hunger.”

The drivers may be indifferent to the disease, but some warn that poor communities where the Covid-19 pandemic is relatively under control could be the new hotspots in a few weeks for exactly this reason.

According to nursing union Denosa, this is the risk posed by government’s decision to allow local taxis to operate at full capacity rather than the previous 70% cap. The decision came following immense pressure from the industry.

The South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) promised over the weekend to bear the burden of ensuring all taxis in the informal industry complied with safety protocols, including ensuring sufficient ventilation inside the vehicles.

But in cold weather, any number of Toyota Quantum and similar make taxis, with a capacity of 15 passengers could be observed on Johannesburg roads with the windows fully closed. It is now up to Santaco members to break this cultural norm and convince passengers that it is better to grin and bear the cold, than to risk spreading or contracting the virus.

Denosa Secretary-General Cassim Lekhoati says this is concerning, especially for healthcare workers who are exposed to patients and fellow commuters from their communities in large volumes daily. He said allowing taxis, even for short trips to be filled to capacity, while the question of ventilation was still hanging, is irresponsible.

“I have observed with concern while driving through the roads that even though they said that from now they will keep the windows open, these taxis don’t even open the windows, because they say it is cold. In our view this defeats the purpose,” said Lekhoathi.

Picture for illustration. Naledi Chauke cleans a taxi at Dunswart taxi rank in Johannesburg, 3 June 2020 as part of an initiative by Cadena South Africa in conjuntion with Be Blessed church and Siyathuthuka Sonke to sanitise taxis during the Covid -19 pandemic. Cadena SA supplies Aquatabs that dissolved in water and makes the sanitiser spray, and the other organisations provide volunteers to clean the taxis. Picture: Neil McCartney

“It is for the same reason that it was correct to not allow full capacity on the trains. These are the modes of transport that our members and our communities are using. What we are going to see now, these communities at first were very safe, but now we are going to see an explosion of new cases over the next few weeks in those areas.”

A recent report by the National Compensation Fund showed that women, particularly nurses, were the most affected workers by Covid-19 infection. Whether they were contracting the disease at work or in transit, their exposure to poorer communities in large numbers made them significant potential carriers, Lekhoati feared.

“What is more worrying is that people are already getting infected getting to and from work on a day-to-day basis, so it was very wrong to then allow the 100% capacity,” argued Lekhoati.

This weekend Santaco described union federation Cosatu’s threat to go on strike over this issue as ‘unfortunate’. From their perspective, Cosatu members did not stand up for them when government enforced crippling restrictions on their operations.

The industry has been accused of holding the country to ransom over their numerous demands that government allow certain freedoms despite the risks involved.

According to Santaco, the decision was essentially a compromise made between government and the body. This after robust and often combative engagements this year between the industry body and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, who failed to meet several demands but appeared to have caved on this one.

“Santaco accepted the decision by government not because it’s a total solution to the problems faced by the taxi industry during lockdown, but mainly because it was a mutual compromise between the parties,” said Santaco President Phillip Taaibosch

Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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