Commuters to be given hand sanitizer when boarding a taxi, says Santaco
The council's president Phillip Taaibosch says taxi drivers and commuters should not discriminate against another commuter for coughing.
Taxis queue outside Wanderers taxi rank in Johannesburg to ferry people traveling home, Limpopo, Eastern Cape and countries such as Botswana and Zimbabwe during the festive season, 20 December 2019. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
The president of the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco) Phillip Taaibosch has commuters will be given hand sanitizer when boarding a taxi which they can use even after handling taxi fares.
Taaibosch was on Wednesday outlining the plans by the taxi industry to contain the spread of Covid-19 in taxi ranks countrywide.
Taaibosch said major taxi ranks across the country have been identified and will be closely monitored to ensure that the plans and measures that have been drafted to contain the spread of the virus are complied with.
He called for taxis and taxi ranks to be kept clean and are cleaned on a daily basis, with taxi ranks disinfected as frequently as possible.
Taaibosch warned South Africans, in particular taxi drivers and commuters, to not fall for the scam that the Reserve Bank is collecting people’s money for safekeeping in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
He urged queue marshals in taxi ranks to encourage passengers to observe good hygiene habits and for all within the vicinity of taxi ranks to cover their mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing.
Taaibosch said though dealing with coronavirus outbreak would not be easy, the taxi industry is committed to ensuring that its spread is contained.
He thanked Santaco’s leadership in KwaZulu-Natal for responding proactively to the outbreak.
Taaibosch appealed to all taxi commuters and drivers to refrain from discriminating against any passenger who coughs during a commute.
“It’s not every [person] who coughs or sneezes who has coronavirus,” Taaibosch said, adding that no commuter should be asked to disembark from a taxi simply because they coughed.
Taaibosch said Santaco would engage with the government and accessing the national disaster fund would be considered as a way of assisting the taxi industry to carry out its plan to contain the spread of the virus.
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