Update: Taxi war flares up
The taxi war between Mhluzi and Nasaret has literally flared up again with the torching of 16 taxis in Mhluzi in the predawn hours on Friday.
Police are now on high alert for revenge attacks on Nasaret’s taxi operators, though the chairman of the Mhluzi Taxi Association, Mr Almon Mdluli, says “we are not pointing fingers at this stage”.
Mr Mdluli says that the mini buses was set alight around 04:00 Friday morning.
“At this stage we have no clue who the arsonist could be, and we’re not speculating, the police must solve this urgently,” Mr Mdluli says.
Nasaret District Taxi Association chairman, Mr David Ross, told the Observer that rumours of revenge attacks were rife.
“I however don’t believe that any of our members are involved, this is purely an act of vandalism by a criminal,” Mr Ross said.
According to the SAPS eight taxis were set alight in Extension 5, while another eight were torched in Avalon simultaneously.
The attacks seems deliberately planned, the SAPS says.
No suspects has been identified yet and Mhluzi detectives have taken over the investigation.
Nasaret and Extension 24 has fallen prey to violent protests regarding the disputed taxi routes on numerous occasion the past weeks.
The stalemate over which association has exclusive transport rights in Extension 24, has not been broken.
• At 09:00 the SAPS and military descended on Iraq Taxi Rank where everybody was searched. The Middelburg Observer could however not confirm any arrests before print.
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