The protest was sparked by the recent death of a known taxi operator, Elvis Shabugu.

Shabangu, famously known as Press Shukela, was allegedly shot and killed on Friday afternoon at Entokozweni, next to the ZCC church.

The taxi operators are accusing the police for moving at a snail’s pace to arrest the suspects involved in the shooting. At the time of going to press, the provincial police spokesperson, Donald Mdhluli could not confirm whether the suspect’s had been arrested or not. He told this paper though, that police are working on the matter and information will be communicated in due time.

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The MEC for community safety, security and liaison, Vusi Shongwe, who managed to convince the taxi operators after thorough engagements to open the roads, also confirmed to this paper that police are investigating the matter.

“There are accusations that the police are not doing their work, although the issues are that when they do their investigation process they do not reveal this to the public. This is due to the guidelines of investigating a case. We are going to have an urgent meeting with the taxi association. As the department and SAPS we are concerned that some of the community members were not able to get to work due to the protest.

This is why we decided to come out and listen to the grievances of the taxi drivers. We want to engage with them to avoid a division between the community and the drivers.” Top Star Taxi Association’s chairperson, John Mavundla, said, “On Friday while we were commemorating Heritage Day, these criminals shot and killed one of our taxi drivers.

The police did not assist us hence we decided to take matters into our hands. This incident has really made us angry and this is the reason why we chose to close off all the intersections. After our member was shot a police van appeared right after the incident took place. We stopped it, but the police officer in the van said he was in such a hurry to get home and sleep.”