Tshwane taxi operators in talks over load capacity

Leadership of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) in Tshwane was undecided whether it would fully load taxis in defiance of Covid-19 regulations by the government.

Current regulations say that taxis may only operate at 70% passenger capacity.

This after Santaco declared at the weekend that taxis across the country would up the load to 100%.

Santaco was angered by the government’s apparent failure to increase its relief grant to taxi operators.

The government offered about R1-billion to registered taxis to make up for the loss of income during the time they were operating at low passenger rates.

Tshwane Santaco leadership said they were still in negotiations whether to push their members to operate at 100%.

Spokesperson Mack Makata said he could not yet comment on whether taxi drivers in the Tshwane metro would adhere to the call of the national structure pushing members to fill their taxis to full capacity.

“You will remember that after announcement of lockdown by President Cyril Ramaphosa, government regulations required the taxi industry to load 50% to achieve social distancing in the taxis as well as general mitigation of the virus in the industry.

“It was the most difficult time of our business, because the regulations allowed only 15% of the taxi industry to legally provide a service.”

Makata said the service was mainly for the transportation of essential workers.

“This meant that 190 000 taxis were not operational. But even those working were struggling to make petrol money just to keep the services running.”

Santaco said the 70% capacity rule was “merely a compromise” as taxi operators were not making any profits.

“It was our expectation that transport minister Fikile Mbalula will afford us opportunity to engage with our constituency. We were surprised when the minister announced a relief grant when we had no agreement in place with him on it.”

Santaco said it had also engaged Mbalula on issues of the relief fund, 100% loading capacity, opening of long distance operations and taxi fares.

“Mbalula requested time to consult with the command council. We have been waiting for three weeks in vain.”

“Santaco took a decision for all taxis to load 100% capacity and long distance operations to resume and to work without permits.

“This is subject to necessary safety measures such as wearing masks in taxis, which is compulsory in terms of the law, sanitisation of taxis and commuters as they board taxis, for long distance taxis and marshals to ensure that all boarding commuters are screened and recorded and that a proper filing system is kept safe.

“Associations must ensure taxi drivers do not load beyond the taxi’s legal loading capacity and drivers must also ensure sanitisation at the end of work,” the taxi council said.

Santaco said it had taken this decision against the frustrations and lack of direction from government.

“We are aware that law enforcement will want to impound our taxis. Our vehicles have been impounded since day one of lockdown, with a charge of at least R5 000 to release your taxi.

“We have complained about this wrongful impounding of vehicles to the minister and nothing has been done to this day.”

Mbalula said it was “unfortunate and regrettable” that the taxi industry leadership had elected to violate the law and forcefully load taxis at capacity and break other regulations.

“Government has a responsibility to ensure that all measures in place as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic were driven by the commitment to preserve human life and avoid an uncontrolled spread of the virus.

“It is on that basis that a decision to allow uncontrolled inter-provincial travel and loading at capacity on taxis to be subjected to the collective decision-making.”

He appealed to the taxi industry to reconsider their decision “to incite lawlessness and place their drivers and passengers on a collision course with law enforcement authorities”.