People irate with taxi drivers
Some of them went further and made a call to the government to take serious steps against the long distance taxis to Barberton that are using the hitching spot as a their taxi rank .
MBOMBELA – Some citizens in the CBD said they are fed-up with the taxi drivers that are parking at the hitch-hiking spot near the SARS offices.
They voiced out to Mpumalanga News after one taxi driver allegedly accused of trying to assault a person who was asking lifts from cars that were passing by.
Some of them went further and made a call to the government to take serious steps against the long distance taxis to Barberton that are using the hitching spot as a their taxi rank . One of the victims, Ms Nelisiwe Vilakazi told this reporter that she was waiting for her friend to come and fetch her and one of the taxi driver s asked her what she was waiting for, and when she told him that she was waiting for someone, the driver didn’t waste time, he started to insult her as she went on and said: “He told me that I’m not allowed to stand there and I tried to explain to him that this is a hitching spot and it’s a public place. He didn’t want to listen as he started to push me and he told me that I’m disturbing them because they are in business and when I asked him how, he said I ‘m encouraging people not to use public transport, this is totally wrong something must be done,”she explained.
Vilakazi emphased that traffic officers need to talk with drivers because they have a taxi rank inside the CBD, but now they are harassing people who are asking for lifts from cars that are passing by.
“This is not a taxi rank, they must stop controlling us,” she added.
This is not the first time for this publication to receive such complaints about taxi drivers attacking them. Earlier this year taxi commuters were experiencing similar problems and mid-August the MEC of safety ,security and community liaison, Mr Vusi Shongwe, through the program of Ligwalagwala FM called Shintjaguluva interacted with taxi drivers ,where he urged drivers to respect the rights of passengers and was quoted saying: “The taxi industry is very important in the country and played a very significant role during the apartheid era, but we have realized that now people are complaining about the treatment that they received from taxi drivers , respect and unity is what can make this industry to survive “.
